The homepage, for me, with its stylish subtly implemented functionality is one of Bing's most outstanding features and a major reason that I continue to return and explore. Thank you folks for being here.

Aberjhani

A search engine should be about one thing:  SEARCH.

When I come to an SE, I have one goal in mind and that is to find something.  I already know what the thing is.  Suggestions on how to search for it are helpful (ie, "auto-suggestions/auto-complete).  But much more than that is a distraction, and a distraction is ocunter productive.

I really don't have time to explore.  I'm not here to "explore".  I don't have time to flutter all over the page looking for "easter eggs".

Keep it plain, simple, and focused.  For one thing, the spartan appearance of Google (and let's face it, that's what you are aiming at), google's spartan appearance give me the distinct feeling that Google is all about *one thing*: SEARCHING.

I know that's prolly not entirely true - google is also, after all, pushing ads.  But you get the distinct feeling when you arrive at Google that Google is focused on that one thing I mentioned, and that alone is a "psychological" comfort.

Also, here's an opportunity for you to capitalize on one of Google's recent mis-steps.

Google USED to provide "hit counts" in it's Auto-Complete suggestions.  This was TREMENDOUSLY helpful to me and, given the feedback/complaints they had when they removed it, so it was also for many others.

The hit counts help me decide where I am most likely to find what I am looking for.  Consider: If I am searching for info about Bill Gate's life story, and I search for "Bill Gates"...  If I see there are 400,000 hits on "Bill Gates Biography", and only 50,000 on "Bill Gates Life Story", I know where to focus my attention and where I am most likely to succeed.

Google removed this feature, and I suspect they did so over advertiser complaints.  People are being steered away from one site because of it's lower "presence".  Sucks to be the "merchant" in such a case, but if you are interested in helping me find the right info, not driving traffic to pre-determined sites, then your focus should be on helping ME, the searcher, not the advertiser.

I understand that ad placement drives revenue, but you also need to know that you should focus on the searching public if you want to attract traffic.

This Kirby guy is probably the exact opposite of most users.

Almost everyone I have introduced to Bing has loved not

only how much more intuitive and user friendly it is than

Google, but the fact it actually has an appealing interface

and interesting backdrop. Keep up the good work Microsoft and

don't pay attention to stiffs like that guy.

Yea. Good work bing peeps. This Kirby guy is moronic. Shoo troll.

Yea I agree with iraya, Kirby is a troll. Love it hate it, you can see some serious effort at pleasing the users with the new UI/Backgrounds. And guess what, people like. People like it a lot. Next time take the rant back to your blog where you can whine all day about algo changes and "psychological comfort". If you don't like Bing, cool. If you "don't have time to explore" then you don't have time to post that long of a comment here.

Nice, I like the Bing Homepage Images and the Hotspots. Its like "What have you discovered today...?" with those Hotspots. But these Hotspots are not enabled for all markets as still they are in beta.

Also if one wants to save the image, just right click on image and 'Save Background As..'. There's option for 'Set as background' on your desktop.(In IE only) Earlier people had to use a 3rd party app or some trick to save these images.

If one does not want the images , but plain background , just do : http://www.bing.com/?rb=0

If you want the images back : http://www.bing.com/?rb=1

I also request Bing to continue to post relevant pictures on Special occasions, which its been doing.

And what's the sequence of posting the images on different markets? Which one gets first? I noticed Aus, GB, France gets first and then other countries. On what basis is this done?

The images are brilliant... except if you live in unimportant places like South Africa where we just get a rather less exciting stock photo from Corbis, no hotspots and no previous function. sniff.

bing is growing on me. if only you guys could replace the Windows Live team and fix that up....

Yes, The images are brilliant...

I must admit that those homepage shots are spectacular. Probably some of the best photos I have seen online.

I would like to have an option to get rid of the annoying pictures.

lol kirby, you are too busy and is distracted by the image but have ample time to write a two page comment on something you'd ignore :)

thedp, you are at the right place. Please scroll up.

The best thing about it is the speed these images DL at... If not it would be simply annoying. The network you guys are on rocks!

I was particularly pleased to see my hometown Melbourne on there.

I will be watching for the hot spots on the pictures each day now!