Software giant Microsoft has introduced visual search for its search engine Bing.com, in order to further set itself apart from market leader Google. According to a report by BBC News, the new feature will let users browse results using pictures instead of text.
Visual search will concentrate on four main areas: travel, health, leisure and shopping.
“There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search,” said Yusuf Mehdi, the firm’s senior vice president of online services.
Microsoft also claimed that “Visual Search” allows users to conduct certain searches faster than the traditional image search offered by rival Google and other search engines.
As users enter search terms, a link at the top of the first page of results lets you choose to ‘visualise’ what Bing has found. Click on the link and a display or gallery of related images will pop up.
A search at bing.com/visualsearch for “digital cameras,” for example, returns a gallery of thumbnail pictures of digital cameras which can then be filtered by manufacturer or by price, displaying a new set of images.
Hovering over a particular image or clicking on it will provide information about that particular product and the images rearrange themselves on the page as a search query is refined “A thousand words”.