Microsoft has been quietly been making changes to its Bing search design and experience for Windows Phone 8 owners. While the company has not issued a formal press release or blog post about the updates, they started appearing on some Windows Phone 8 devices in the U.S. Friday morning.
Windows Phone Daily reports that one of the biggest changes is the pivot categories for Bing. Previously, it gave Windows Phone 8 owners the choice to go to Web, Local, Media, or Shopping search results. Now the number of pivot categories has been reduced to just three and the labels themselves have been changed to Web, Images and Video. The Media label was expanded to Images and Video, while Local and Shopping were dumped completely.
The Image pivot now features large thumbnails of photos while the Video pivot has video previews in a 2x2 format. The Web search has also been changed to include more content such as local results and product cards for items.
When asked, Microsoft sent a brief statement to Windows Phone Daily and other websites:
We can confirm that people will now see a refreshed experience when they use Bing on Windows Phone 8. The updated experience is rolling out gradually and will be available globally on all Windows Phone 8 devices in the coming weeks.
It's possible that Microsoft started the update earlier than planned and thus did not have time to issue a more detailed press release or blog post about the changes.
Source: Windows Phone Daily | Image via Windows Phone Daily
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