Our readers may recall that in June this year, Microsoft Live Search was displaying background images on the Live Search home page as a testing ground for a new and improved home page.

Now via the Live Search Blog, Microsoft has announced that, due to the positive feedback it has received from users, the same background images have now officially been inculcated in the Live Search home page. The images that would be displayed in the new Live Search page will be changed frequently and will also have highlighted areas in the image itself. These highlighted areas are known as 'hotspots' and can be explored with the click of a button. These hotspots will produce search results related to themselves. As of now, these new changes have been rolled out for users in the United States alone. However, Microsoft assures that the changes for the Live Search home page would be reflected in other regions shortly.

According to the Live Search Blog, “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. 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.'

This indeed is a welcome change from all the takeover bids and accusations that have been doing the circles of the search engine realm. Such updates and innovations are the little things that keep the search engine tussle from turning into a full blown war and with it turning the experience of the Internet into a sour one.

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