Today, Bing is introducing a new beta feature: Visual Search. This will not replace text-based results. Instead, you can choose to use it or not from the Bing home page or from results. It’s rolling out to US users initially.
Visual Search is only being launched for select categories at first. Additional categories are expected to be expanded in the future.
When I met with Bing director Stefan Weitz in August, he previewed Visual Search for me. He compared Visual Search to walking into a store and visually browsing products.
I agree with Weitz. Search needs to encompass all sorts of browsing, memory and learning types. Some are great with text. Others are visual. Still others are a mixture.
Take a look at the screenshots of visual search below. Then go try it out for yourself at bing.com/visualsearch. Be sure to return to this post and leave a comment letting us know what you think of Bing’s Visual Search.
