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Another Metro-styled Bing homepage in testing, with collapsible taskbar

Mar 24, 2012 4:53 pm by damaster | 12 comments

Tips has been coming into our inbox that Bing is currently testing a new and slightly improved Metro-styled Bing homepage recently. The new design adds more information to the “taskbar” at the bottom of the Bing homepage image, which looks similar to the one Bing had been testing on Windows 8 touch interface back in September last year. The “taskbar” now includes your search history as well as highlights from Bing Image and Video search, in addition to trending topics. Check it out below (thanks to Michael Yu sending in the screenshot!):

Further, another tip came in from our friend Vasudev showing that his new Bing homepage also has an extra button to collapse this “taskbar”, should you prefer a more simplistic design. Check it out below (courtesy of Vasudev):

Unfortunately, this new Bing homepage is again rolling out at random for testing purposes only, and is also limited to the US version of Bing. We have it here on IE, but wasn’t able to see it on Firefox or Chrome. So if you have the new Bing homepage and see anything different, let us know and post us a screenshot in the comments below! Alternatively, just send us a tip by clicking on the “Got Tips?” button up the top!

This entry was posted in Bing and tagged Bing, Home Page, Metro, UI. Bookmark the permalink.

http://twitter.com/marcelobing Marcelo Bing
bing homepage on Chrome�
https://plus.google.com/photos/107970078129581613460/albums/5723633089455921137/5723633088884759938
http://twitter.com/marcelobing Marcelo Bing
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Kentd
Got the new taskbar WITHOUT the button to make it go away. I HATE the taskbar. Would quit using bing if I can’t make it go away
- J-mac
  You’re not using bing… stop bother
- matthewthepc
  clear all your cookies for Bing.com (actually, first copy and paste them into the comments here incase anyone wants to use them :D) and then you’ll no longer see the new Metro homepage. Instructions for doing this differ browser to browser; on IE go to Bing.com, click F12 (or, on some laptops fn+F12), Cache->Clear Cookies for this Domain.
liberalrepublic
I saw that n actually liked it
Sascenter
Stop experimenting, just roll out something already!..
tN0
It’s really frustrating how the Bing team isn’t able to improve their product continuously. We have seen so many different design tests and color changes but no real improvement (big or small).
What are they doing? Seriously? Bing for Windows Phone didn’t really improved in the last 2 years. Compare this with Google Maps how many large updates they manages to roll out! And Bing needs more frequent updates to catch up with Google’s service.
If I had the chance I would ask Steve Ballmer if Bing is just a hobby for Microsoft.
JSYOUNG571
I never thought I would end up saying this. Since I have had an Android phone, I find Google to be way more useful then Bing. That is sad since I have been following Bing since the Live search days. The only thing that I seem to enjoy Bing for is the moving photographs on the page, that is it. Microsoft has done nothing but set and did cover girl make up on the Bing page back and forth. For 2 years, we have been promised a HTLM5 version that has yet to happen fully.
Anon
I don’t like it as the page is much more crowded. Keep the page simple please. Now, it doesn’t only have a new image every day, but it is also cluttered by a series of videos, a list of images and a set of Bing Trending topics, whatever that might mean. What is the difference between Bing Trending topics and Popular Now? This is the problem with Microsoft pages, cluttered and unclear why links are there in the first place. If as a user I can’t tell in 5 seconds why a list of links or a particular part of a page is needed or why it is there, then there is certainly something wrong with that page. Google makes things simple and self-explanatory. Microsoft throws on their pages whatever might catch the eye. Where is the logic?
- Sascenter
  I don’t think it’s too cluttered, there are just a couple boxes with the trending searches.
  The search results on the other hand, I think that looks a little crowded. Just my opinion.
http://www.chrissouthcott.com/ cjschris
Are they serious? Roll it out already! Learn from Google and realise the web is constantly moving. Don’t practice, but instead roll-out, see feedback FROM ALL and then change it.
Bing, for me, is just as ugly as when it was made.