Bing background image

The most immediately obvious feature of the bing interface is the dramatic background image.

There is a new background image every day, often of noteworthy places; sometimes of people, animals, or sport. The image is likely to be highly pertinent to a current situation in the user's country. For instance, at the time of writing, Bing UK is showing a picture of a snowy owl - highly pertinent in one of the worst winters on record!

The Bing background image has a very different style to that of Google. The former shows a complex background image, while the latter keeps to plain white with (perhaps) a small topical image.

Bing navigation pane

On the Bing interface, the navigation pane is on the left. This, again, contrasts with Google, where the navigation pane is at the top. The full set of navigation links, including the menu item links, are shown, here, in the left margin. Each link in the navigation pane (Images, Videos, Shopping...) shows a menu of links on "mouse over".

Bing images interface

The Images option gives you the two (rather strange!) options of finding computer wallpaper or black & white pictures.

So the Images options cater for rather specialist needs, but (fortunately) the options under the other top-level links cater to more popular needs. For instance, the split of Videos between TV shows, music and sports seems unobjectionable.

Bing maps interface

The Maps options are quite interesting. They are obviously targeted at Bing's strengths and Google's weaknesses. For instance, Google offers street level views, satellite views, but not Bird's eye views. By highlighting this Bing may get curious types (and bird spotters!) exploring their Maps interface. Another plus is that Bird's eye views are well worth investigating, providing a nice complement to the views that Google offers. They were a feature of Multimap, the UK company which was bought by Microsoft to get hold of niceties like this. I'd like to see more options here, like Ordnance survey maps - another great feature from Multimap.

Recent searches

Perhaps the most useful of the Bing interface top-level links is Recent Searches. People often navigate back to something they found by repeating a search. Showing people their recent searches gives them an aide memoire and shortcut.

Quick preview

Once you have performed your search, if you move the mouse over a search result, a right arrow appears. Move the mouse over the right arrow and a preview appears - this contains several sentences from the beginning of the page, and a handful of the most popular links emanating form the page. This contrasts with Google's preview, which gives a snapshot of the whole page.

Both previews have advantages and disadvantages, but it is a useful feature of both, and worth experimenting with. You can search some sites, like Wikipedia, from the bing preview.

Rotating information and Popular Now

At the bottom of the Bing homepage interface there is rotating information and a "Popular Now" link for hot topics.