Technology Network

      Microsoft has unveiled new Visual Search feature to its search engine Bing at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco. Full-fledged Bing update is expected later this fall. Users can head to bing.com/visual search to see the initial 50 image 'classes' or galleries to help search through results quickly. Just like the search engine, Visual Search is currently in the Beta stage. Visual search looks pretty cool and not merely a search feature but an experience.

      Bing search engine's new Visual Search feature is powered by Silverlight that helps the glossy thumbnails to fly around in the result area. We couldn't access the Visual search on Bing India page but could use it after changing the region to US-English. On landing on bing.com/visual search, a grid of 50 specifically categorized thumbnails is visible.

      The 50 specific categories like Digital Cameras, Dog Breeds, Cell phones, HDTVs and so on. Users can click on either of the galleries and Bing will organize the search result images in a grid form. If you choose cell phones, you can further sort the search results by Brand, Contract Price or Bing Popularity in alphabetical order.


      Sorting the thumbnails by specific category will show Silverlight fun with icons flying in the result area. This not only gives a rich user experience but also represents the data in structured format.

      Last week, at an annual company meeting, some excited Microsoft employees updated through Twitter - "BING 2.0 terrific!! watch out guys ! bing + silverlight in maps = amazing !! goodbye google." A full-fledged update to the 'decision engine' is anticipated in the coming months, albeit not overnight of course.