The Microsoft Live Search Engine has some new tricks

Posted by Jim Stroud

August 9, 2007

I was playing around with the Microsoft Windows Live Search Engine (wow, that’s a mouthful), when I noticed that they had a new search operator on it. Actually, three new operators and all applicable to searching images. Let me show you what I mean…

If you are searching for a picture of Jimi Hendrix (and who wouldn’t?), you could just type in “Jimi Hendrix” and get a screen similar to the one below.

Now, you have the option of performing that same search with different options: filter:face, filter:portrait and filter:bw. The “Face” operator brings back pictures of Jimi Hendrix’ face. (closeups); the “Portrait” operator rings back professional photos of his grooviness and “BW” brings back black and white images of Jimi (of course). Man, it would be so cool to see Laurence Fishburne play Hendrix in a movie.

But I digress…

Here is a picture of the filter:bw operator in action.

Another new function of the Live Search Engine is the way it suggests other photos based on what you are looking for. As cited in the screenshot below, other images related to Jimi Hendrix include: Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, John Dylan, Jimmy Paige and so on. (Wow! I am beginning to feel a bit like Austin Powers now).

And just for giggles, I did a search for resumes using the filter:bw operator as resumes tend to be black lettering on white paper; at least, those posted online. Check out what came back…