14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is experimenting with the Live Search home page in order to produce the perfect wallpaper recipe. At the end of July, the Redmond company introduced a face lift to Live Search as part of the service's march toward Windows Live Wave 3. The home page redesign was accompanied by inter-changing background images, the latter made available only in a few markets around the world. With the overhauled design features of the Live Search home page Microsoft aimed to deliver a new, more engaging user experience, and the source of additional queries. Since July, the Redmond giant has been experimenting with the rotating Live Search background images, not only in terms of content, but also in regard to the frequency at which the photographs are changed.
"We launched our new home page back at the end of July with the goal of using a new picture each week. Then we decided to get a little crazy for the Olympics and rotate the images twice a day. About three days into the Olympics, we realized we just could not go back to one picture a week," revealed a member of the Live Search Homepage team.
When Microsoft initially went live with the new Live Search home page, Chris Rayner, senior product manager, and Zach Gutt, senior program manager Live Search User Experience team, indicated that the initiative had been receiving positive feedback from testers. With the background images associated by default with Live Search, the Redmond giant is taking a shot at a different approach to the search experience. While rival Google's strategy has always been to provide a search-focused home page and allow personalization, Microsoft is delivering a custom experience from the start, with pre-defined queries available on the page. In this regard, the software company is moving away from the model that has proven immensely successful for Google.
"So a few days ago we shifted gears again. We're now giving you a new image every day, with hotspots to help spur your imagination. Sometimes we'll just show great pictures that we like; sometimes the images will be related to topical events, like (...) Labor Day holiday or NFL season kickoff. We'll occasionally have images from the elections, but rest assured we'll be giving both parties equal time. And if you don't like the picture you see today, don't worry – there will be a new one tomorrow," the Live Search Homepage team representative added.