Redmond, Washington — Software monopolist Microsoft is enhancing the visual experience with a variety of animated video images to its Bing home page when you head over there to search for something, by presenting you with a different image on an interesting theme, but for now they will be visible only by those with certain HTML5-enabled browsers, and in the U.S. Only.
The Bing homepage that generally pops-up with striking photos is possibly one of the most pleasing features of the search engine, at least for those who appreciate photography. But henceforth, Microsoft says there would not be a Bing doodle every day, “just when the mood strikes us”.
Moving forward, the homepage for Microsoft’s Decision Engine, Bing, just got a little livelier. If you head to bing.com you will be greeted by an appealing time-lapse video of a rising sun rolling over a river surrounded by foliage set against backdrop of mountains at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Microsoft’s rival to the Google search engine now preps HTML5-powered moving images on its home page.
Presently, the video support will be displayed only to those using some HTML5-compliant browsers, and only to users residing in the U.S. The time-lapse sunrise is the first video to appear on the Bing homepage, which has been the home to attractive still images that rival National Geographic. However, Microsoft officials are stating that international rollouts of the new HTML5 video imagery will be starting over the “next several months.”
By releasing the new video home page, Microsoft anticipates that the HTML5 features will motivate users to download Internet Explorer 9, but you can also see them in the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, Chrome and other browsers. If you do not using one of those browsers, you will see the still photographs that usually embellishes the home page.
Moreover, HTML5 is a comparatively new arm of the coding language that underpins the Internet. It is best known for powering video that can run on almost any device, unlike Flash, previously the most popular video format on the Web. In particular, HTML5 content like the Bing doodle will work on the iPad and iPhone, which notoriously do not support Flash.
Microsoft officials also said that the videos will not be a daily occurrence on the Bing homepage. But when they do appear–it will be to mark special events, anniversaries, holidays, etc., or whenever the “Bing team falls in love” with a video–they will be mixed in with the still photos that appear on Bing every day. And for those who prefer still images, displaying the Like button and hotspots, Microsoft is allowing them to switch off the video image.
Below is a short video about the Bing team’s decision to add HTML5-enabled videos to the homepage.
{iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ align=”top”}http://www.youtube.com/embed/X_OgGJ4RCXo{/iframe}