Microsoft is constantly evolving the products and services under the Windows Live brand umbrella, and one of the main focuses of the company is, of course, Live Search. Chris Rayner, Senior Product Manager, and Zach Gutt, Senior Program Manager Live Search User Experience team, revealed that the redesigned Live Search homepage would from now on feature background images. The Redmond company will ensure that the Live Search "wallpapers" will alternate frequently, but this process won't be random, and it won't happen on every refresh. Additionally, the Live Search backgrounds will have hotspots implemented, offering users a search item in accordance with elements contained in the image.

"In our release last spring we laid the foundation for this page. In this home page release we've added background home page images that we'll change regularly and hotspots that click through to great search results," Rayner and Gutt stated. "Hotspots gleam to the user when the page first loads then fade into the image. Users can discover them again by moving their mouse over them, revealing details about the image and a link to a related search result. To ensure that users can start a search immediately, our base page loads first with the images and hotspots loading quickly afterward. Users on a broadband connection may not notice the two steps."

For the time being, Microsoft is only rolling out the new Live Search homepage to U.S. users, but additional markets will follow in the future. Rayner and Gutt indicated that the new Live Search design is the result of extensive research and concept testing. What Microsoft is aiming for is to go beyond providing end users with just a search box for their queries. In this regard, the backgrounds and associated hotspots are meant to "intrigue and inform".

"Our goal for the home page is to find the best way to enhance users' sense of discovery, surprise, and delight while balancing engineering realities for a great user experience," Rayner and Gutt added. Microsoft is currently working on the development of Windows Live Wave 3, which is now at the Milestone 1 stage, according to various reports. Windows Live Wave 3 will be intimately connected with the Windows 7 client when it ships.