15
Sep
Bing launches new visual search that will keep users coming back
again and again
Bing is in the news today for launching a new feature called
visual search. Visual search is escalating the competition between
the two search giants and the clear winner will be the consumer.
Currently Google is still the giant in the UK, conducting 91.44% of
all searches in the UK, whilst Bing has a market share of 2.68%
(statcounter.com Sept 2009).
Estate agents, and general Bing users, might have trouble
finding visual search. Visual search does not feature on the Bing
homepage so users have to search for 'visual search' in Bing's
search bar. Once on the results page, users will see news about
visual search at the top of the page with the required link below.
To help users find Bing's Visual search, Resource Techniques has
provided the Visual search link.
Once you've on the visual search link, users are required to
download Microsoft Silverlight which is a graphics system that is
supported by multiple browsers. The download takes a minimal amount
of time, but once past these two hurdles, users are able to fully
enjoy what the feature has to offer.
Currently, there are 47 available galleries ranging from Popular
Books to the FBI's most wanted. The 5 different galleries are;
Entertainment, Famous People, Reference, Shopping and Sports and
these galleries have the full range of choices available. For
example, under 'New Cars', there are 357 cars to view. You can sort
these results by; Most popular on Bing, Safest, Most Expensive,
Best Highway MPG, Hybrid, Sports or SUV and users can narrow each
result by type, make, base price, and fuel type.
Options like these will prompt users to use the feature more as
a point of reference rather than something pretty that they can
use. Once the feature is used as point of reference, then users
will keep coming back to see which mobile phone to buy or which dog
breed that they saw that day.
Resource Techniques provides a similar feature on our estate
agent web sites, in which users are able to use as a point of
reference. Our enhanced mapping allows estate agents to map the
local amenities on their Google Map search. Not only is the feature
embedded into the website (not in a pop-up or external, but users
do not have to download any files to view them!
This is a very popular feature with users! Local amenities from
schools to restaurants are able to be plotted alongside properties
for sale or rent which means that users can plot their children's
route to school or even the nearest train stations to get to work.
Features like this, and visual search, keep users coming back again
and again. Click to view our portfolio or contact us for web sites for estate agents or SEO for estate agents.
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