Nov 25, 2010 09:31 GMT  ·  By

While checking for new updates on the Windows Personalization gallery recently, I came across ‘Bing Image of the Day,’ a new gadget designed to integrate with the sidebar in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Despite its official label, the actual functionality of the gadget is rather focused on search than on the background images featured each day on Microsoft’s search / decision engine.

Essentially, what users will get is a new Windows Sidebar Gadget that allows them to perform Bing searches right on their desktop, without the need to first open the browser, navigate to the search / decision engine and only subsequently enter their query.

The gadget itself has two basic modes, one in which it just sits on the desktop, as users can see in the image at the top of this article, and an extended variant once the user interacts with it.

Clicking the search field will expand it to more generous proportions, and allow customers to enter their search terms.

As users type their query, the gadget will present a set of suggestions designed to make their search easier, anticipating the terms entered.

Once a search is performed, the Bing Image of the Day gadget launches the default browser, and gets Bing to produce the results to the query.

Users also have the option of simply clicking on the Bing image in order to visit the home page of the search / decision engine.

In this regard, they will notice that the background image of the gadget is synchronized, at least somewhat, with the wallpaper of the day featured on Bing.

Still, the gadget continues to require some work. On my copy of Windows 7 there’s no access to any options or settings for the Bing Image of the Day gadget.

It’s impossible to move it to a new place on the desktop, save for actually closing it and choosing a new location when enabling the gadget again from the Windows Personalization Gallery.

At the same time, there are periods of time in which the gadget’s and Bing’s wallpapers are not actually in tune with one another, with Bing Image of the Day lagging behind.

Bing Image of the Day is available for download here.