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Microsoft overhauls Bing with sleek new video search capabilities

By Koh Wanzi - on 22 Jun 2015, 10:15am

Microsoft overhauls Bing with sleek new video search capabilities

Bing's video search results page now features larger images and video thumbnails for a more visual layout.

In a time where YouTube and Google are the de facto go-to search engines for practically anything you want to watch or read on the Internet, Bing can appear more than a little dated. However, Microsoft has now revitalized its search engine with a sleek video search feature that may just give you reason to search for videos via Bing instead.

Images take center stage with Microsoft’s update, and the new Bing features bigger images and video thumbnails to allow users to more easily find relevant videos. Additional information like channel name, upload date and view count has also been added to the video search page, making it almost reminiscent of YouTube.

And for anyone who has wished for video previews on YouTube, Bing now allows you to preview videos straight from the results page. All you have to do is hover your cursor over the video to watch a short clip of it, complete with audio.

Microsoft has even paid special attention to music search results with something it calls “hero” answers for songs. When users search for a song, Bing will display an enlarged thumbnail, or “hero”, for the song in question. You can opt to play the full video as it shows up or click to the source to watch it there.

Bing now displays a larger "hero" result whenever you search for a song. (Image Source: Bing Blogs)

The search result layout has also been tweaked. Related searches now show up in line with the rest of the search results, so you’ll get ideas of what to search for next even as you scroll through the results. This is supposed to also help users who are navigating Bing on touch-capable devices and other smaller screens.

Bing aggregates search results from YouTube, Myspace, Dailymotion, and Metacafe. But while most users are probably only concerned with YouTube and aren’t likely to abandon search from within the Google-owned platform and Google itself, Bing still offers a decent alternative if you’d like to try something different.

Source: Bing Blogs via Engadget

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