Microsoft’s Bing has launched an update as part of a major overhaul of its video searching feature.
With the changes, which were rolled out yesterday, users are now presented with a carousel of related queries beneath the video being watched, as well as a list of similar videos to the right hand side.
Video previews have been made much larger, and now appear in a higher resolution with additional information.
For example, with YouTube material, a user can easily check the number of views the video has attracted, as well as a description of its content in which a user’s search terms are highlighted in bold.
Previews also now offer an audio control feature and a small logo icon, or ‘favicon’, of the source site.
As part of the makeover, Bing has also introduced a range of filters which give users the option of narrowing down their search results by screen resolution. For example, a user could choose to only be presented with high definition content. This feature also allows the filtering of search results by length, date or source.
Reporting on the update, TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois said that when it comes to video search, Bing is more than a worthy competitor to rival Google. He said:
“With its new high-res previews, channels and related searches, Bing can now easily compete with the best of the tube site aggregators.”
The update likely means that search engine optimisation and content specialists will be paying closer attention to Bing, as it seeks to build its market share and increase user traffic.