Google is a habit, while others are just a coincidence.

This is the mentality of most online users, we tend to assume that “Google is the best”. My point is that if you never explore the features of other search engines, you are certainly missing out a lot of goodness.

One perfect example is Bing’s new image search which slightly got better with the introduction of a landing page at www.bing.com/?scope=images

Bing’s new image search interface houses a lot of improvements and assembles the images in full fidelity, neatly arranged in a criss cross grid. Thus whenever you land in Bing’s new image search page, you will see a brief preview of some of the most popular image searched on Bing.

When you click through any image on Bing Image search, you will be taken to the search result page for that specific term. This is really useful, because you might be interested in other queries that are related to that same image, in some way or the other.

For example: This search for red flowers at Bing Image search, presents a neat horizontal grid on the search result page, accompanied by a sleek slideshow at the top. It’s way much better than Google’s; you can click the arrow icons and navigate through other images to find that perfect image you’re looking for.

I mean, who needs “instant search” ? we need better and meaningful results, not fancy features that are often distracting.

The search result page tries to get an HD image (if available) , so you can be rest assured that if a high definition version is available, Bing will automatically try to find the highest quality image and display it. On the search result page, you may scroll down to view the active search result and find more information regarding the particular image in question.

Hovering over a thumbnail shows you the exact resolution and image size, along with displaying the file size and related queries on the sidebar. This is lifesaving, when you want to download wallpapers of low file sizes without having to download each and every image from a website and check the file size manually.

On the search result page, users are shown more information e.g EXIF data, date when the image was taken along with the possible date when the image was found by the search engine. This is again a useful addition for photographers and picture enthusiasts, who want an easy way to find old photos on the web.

The sidebar is the most important feature which helps you to find relevant and stunning images on Bing Image search. There are different links sections which are worth a mention:

1. Related queries: Allows you to repeat the same search for a different query, helps in finding related images.

2. Sizes: Lets you filter images from Bing search by size – options available are large, small, medium and wallpaper.

3. Layout: Lets you filter images that are more wide, tall or square than the generic ones

4. Color: This setting lets you filter images by color, black and white or display images that contain one or more colors.

5. Style: This is good if you are looking for a portrait or a landscape version of an image.

6. People: Filters the search result that contains only the faces of people with shoulders.

What I really liked about Bing’s improved image search is it’s pleasing and non cluttering interface. The options are provided only when you need them and they don’t interfere with the user experience. Ideally suited for students, small children or the person who ends up searching for a photo every other month.

Do give Bing’s new image search a try and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Related: Download Bing’s Image of the day Desktop gadget