14 DAY TRIAL // At the Launch of Internet Explorer 9 Beta yesterday, Bing displayed all its new HTML5 features, which include moving backgrounds, hovering windows and search results that move with you as you scroll.
The search engine took the stage and showed off IE9's new HTML5 abilities and added that Bing will integrate deep HTML5 features starting next month, in the form of a preview.
Bing has a very popular homepage, known for its daily front-page photo, so this is where the Bing team started showing off the moving backgrounds.
In a month, using the Canvas HTML5 tag, that amazing photo will come to life, and you will also be able to zoom in or out of the picture, for a larger view.
An animated beach home page with water crashing onto the beach was already demonstrated, without the use of additional plug-ins or video.
Besides the esthetic improvements of using HTML5, this also allows Bing to enhance its search engine results page, meaning that, for example, the top navigation will stay at the top of your browser screen while you scroll through the search results, and these search results will stick to the top of the screen until you scroll into the next one.
Last, HTML5 allowed Bing to create some very cool slideshows, which you can also generate automatically, from your search queries.
All of these features should work with any HTML5-compatible browser, but they should be optimized for IE9, meaning it all will not look as good on your Chrome or Safari browser.
Internet Explorer 9 will have this advantage because of its combination of hardware-accelerated HTML5, CSS3, a lightning-fast Javascript engine, and the integration with Windows.
“Bing has always stood for re-envisioning search [and] we’re driven by the belief that in today’s complex world, no matter how fast results are displayed, the experience is not always enough to help you complete your task and make an informed decision,” said Brian MacDonald, Vice President at Bing.
HTML5 is the fifth major revision of the Web’s core programming standard, Hypertext Markup Language and the fact that IE9 uses HTML5 allows developers to do lots of things more quickly, and utilizes the full power of the computer as well as the web to bring customers richer, more immersive and more beautiful online experiences.
“We’re really excited to be part of IE9 beta launch, and equally excited about what we are able to do with Bing, HTML5 and IE9 to bring you even more visually compelling experiences that accentuate the beauty of the web,” Brian MacDonald added.
“There’s a lot more to come, including taking advantage of HTML5 on Firefox, Chrome and Safari, so stay tuned.”
The video below shows just how the new Bing.com will work, with animated home pages, smooth transitions between the home page and your results, including hovering over tabs to show off content, to animated weather.