Bing Desktop: Search Functionality and Good Looks
Until now if you wanted to search for something on Microsoft’s Bing decision engine you had to launch your web browser and enter your query on Bing.com. Or if you’re on Firefox and your default search engine is Bing, you had to launch Firefox and enter your query in the search box in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
There is now a more convenient means of performing searches on Bing. Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has recently released the Bing Desktop application that lets you perform Bing searches from your desktop. After you install the application on your Windows-powered machine, you will see a Bing search box on your desktop. Type in your query in the box, hit enter, and your default browser will launch and you will be presented with the search results on Bing.
By default the application sits right in the middle of your desktop. You can change this location if you don’t like it by selecting “Pin search box to the top of the screen” from the Settings menu. From the same Settings menu you can choose to have Bing Desktop automatically run at startup or not, and you can choose if you want to use the Win + H hotkey to bring up the search box.
I mentioned in this article’s title that the Bing Desktop application provides search functionality and good looks. Since I’ve covered the search functionality, I’ll move on to the “good looks” part.
The nice thing about Bing.com is that it presents a new image on a daily basis (some of the best images have already been used to come up with Windows 7 themes). What the Bing Desktop application does is it takes the daily image presented on Bing.com and uses it as your desktop wallpaper. Thanks to the Bing Desktop application, every day, you have a fresh new wallpaper. That’s what I meant with the “good looks” part in this article’s title.
It must be added here that the Bing Desktop app will sometimes display images Bing uses globally, consequently sometimes the image on your desktop will not match the image on Bing.com in the US – Microsoft cited image licensing reasons for this.
Right now Bing Desktop works on Windows 7 for US English. Microsoft said it hopes to expand to additional markets in the near future.
If you would like to get Bing Desktop, you can grab it straight from Microsoft here.
There is now a more convenient means of performing searches on Bing. Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has recently released the Bing Desktop application that lets you perform Bing searches from your desktop. After you install the application on your Windows-powered machine, you will see a Bing search box on your desktop. Type in your query in the box, hit enter, and your default browser will launch and you will be presented with the search results on Bing.
By default the application sits right in the middle of your desktop. You can change this location if you don’t like it by selecting “Pin search box to the top of the screen” from the Settings menu. From the same Settings menu you can choose to have Bing Desktop automatically run at startup or not, and you can choose if you want to use the Win + H hotkey to bring up the search box.
I mentioned in this article’s title that the Bing Desktop application provides search functionality and good looks. Since I’ve covered the search functionality, I’ll move on to the “good looks” part.
The nice thing about Bing.com is that it presents a new image on a daily basis (some of the best images have already been used to come up with Windows 7 themes). What the Bing Desktop application does is it takes the daily image presented on Bing.com and uses it as your desktop wallpaper. Thanks to the Bing Desktop application, every day, you have a fresh new wallpaper. That’s what I meant with the “good looks” part in this article’s title.
It must be added here that the Bing Desktop app will sometimes display images Bing uses globally, consequently sometimes the image on your desktop will not match the image on Bing.com in the US – Microsoft cited image licensing reasons for this.
Right now Bing Desktop works on Windows 7 for US English. Microsoft said it hopes to expand to additional markets in the near future.
If you would like to get Bing Desktop, you can grab it straight from Microsoft here.
