Bing Testing Thumbnails in Related Searches

Bing is testing an additional visual element to their “related searches” box, where Bing suggests additional searches if a searcher scrolls near the end of the search results page.  Now there is a thumbnail next to each suggested search, along with the notation it is from bing.com

Here is what it looks like:

And here is how it normally appears in the search results:

They are showing it for a wide variety of searches, including both brand and product searches:

The overall size for the related search area is increased, although they now only show 6 search suggestions, down from the usual 8.

They have also swapped around how they bold the keywords in these related searches.  Normally, Bing bolds the added keywords in the related search suggestions.  But in the test with thumbnails, Bing has bolded the additional keywords they are suggesting, while the keywords currently searched for are no longer bolded.

When you click through to one of the related searches, it simply leads to a regular Bing search results page.  So Bing has not changed how they handle these related searches.

They still also run the related searches in the sidebar for some queries.  However, all the sidebar examples were regular keyword related search suggestions, Bing does not seem to be testing the thumbnail version in the sidebar.

These sidebar related searches can also appear on the same page that we see the thumbnail version within the search results.

This is one of many tests we have spotted Bing running recently, including expandable knowledge graphs, features added to product related results, and review stars.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, ClickZ and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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