Bing vs. Google

Image Searching

We decided to start with a common image search and something that many tech enthusiasts love; cars. Before we compare the results though, let's first take a look at the how the images are presented and the browsing and sorting options that are on offer.

Most people are very familiar Google's image searching page. Much like the search engine's homepage, it's simple, functional and no nonsense. Subtly hidden to one side though are some handy features to narrow down the images which is just as well considering there was 987 images over 47 pages Google racked up on the search.

The first is to filter by resolution of an image, selecting large, medium, small or a specific size. More interesting though is the 'type' section. Google will let you filter images by the type of picture that it is such as face, photo or line drawing. It also lets you filter by colour too, enabling you to pick out all the black and white photos or, in this specific search, all the of cars with orange paint jobs.

The most striking difference in the Bing image search is the way it is laid out. While Google had hit 987 images over 47 pages, Bing hit 989 images all on the same page. The problem of Google having its images spread over so many pages was one identified and capitalised on some time ago by Cooliris Inc.

Its browser add on software, aptly named Cooliris, allows you to view images in an endless stream fitted into what has to be one of the best-looking interfaces ever made. The Bing image page isn't as flat-out sexy as Cooliris, the principle of being able to view everything on one page is very convenient and a welcome addition to your image searching experience.


The tools for filtering out images are very similar to those seen on Google image search. Bing has one or two that Google doesn't have and vice-versa. The Bing features are a little more organised into sub sections though. Whereas Google uses size, type and colour, Bing uses size, layout, colour, style and people.

Bing lacks Google's ability to filter images by colour, so we couldn't filter out cars with orange pain jobs for example. The colour section in Bing only allows colour or black and white. It does have a cool feature for when looking for portraits though which lets you filter images of people by face shots or head and shoulder shots. In terms of fine tuning your image search, it's a close call between the two.

One interesting point in the relevancy stakes is that Bing prioritised images from the Disney movie Cars, whereas Google decided that images of cars in general would be more appropriate. This could be down to the popular animated flick being a more prominently searched for thing than regular cars. If you were searching for cars online you would more likely be looking for searches such as 'second hand cars', 'hire cars' or a specific make and model.