The same day that Google is releasing its new cloud storage service, complete with a search function, Bing is releasing its new Bing Desktop. The Bing Team at the Bing Community blog announced that the new service will put the Bing homepage right on user’s desktops. From the blog post:
Bing Desktop marries the beauty of Bing’s daily homepage with a quick and convenient search interface so you don’t have to open your browser to start a search session. Every day, your Windows Desktop Background will automatically refresh to a high resolution version of the day’s home page, drawn from the images we use around the world.
Bing Desktop can be installed on PC’s running the U.S. English version of Windows 7. After installation, a Bing taskbar icon can be used to bring up a search bar on the desktop. Searches will open results in the computer’s default browser. The search bar can alternatively be pinned to the top of the screen, where it will slide out of view until a mouse-click at the top of the screen brings it back out. Also, the desktop image may not always match the Bing homepage image due to licensing issues.
If you use the Bing search engine and are a fan of their undeniably beautiful homepage images, Bing Desktop might be perfect for you. On the other hand, it doesn’t do much except put a search bar on your desktop and rotate your wallpaper. Google decided late last year that their Google Desktop application was no longer relevant, and promptly killed it. Google Desktop was similar to the Bing Desktop, with the addition of local file search. Google cited a shift toward cloud-based storage as the reason for no longer supporting Google Desktop, and obviously already had Google Drive in mind.
Do you use Bing regularly? Are you excited to download Bing Desktop and see a breathtaking new photo each morning? Leave a comment below and let us know.