Microsoft boosts Bing image search with more relevant information

Microsoft has brought some improvements to Bing image search that are designed to help users do more than just find a photo.

After a user searches for a topic and clicks on an image in the Bing image search, Microsoft will provide far more information than it previously did, the company announced Thursday. After clicking an image and scrolling up, users will see related search options, Pinterest collections featuring the image, more sizes for those who want a higher-res version and pages that have that image on them. In addition, if a user is looking at a product image, Bing will automatically provide a list of places where users can buy the particular item.

Microsoft's Bing search engine is the third-most popular in the world, according to research firm NetMarketShare, with an 8.1 percent share. Google leads the market at 62.3 percent, followed by China's Baidu at 19.8 percent.

Despite trailing far behind Google, Bing is still home to boatloads of searches. Indeed, Microsoft says that its users search for billions of images on Bing's image search each month.

Microsoft provided an example of how its new image search will work. After searching for "national parks" and clicking an image, Bing will now display a description of the picture and other facts associated with it. There is also a link to search for more information around that topic.

"Want to know more about a historical figure? Or learn an interesting fact about an insect? These descriptions and links will help you learn more about a wide variety of subjects," Microsoft wrote in its blog post. "The quality of the descriptions and the number of images with one will improve significantly over time."

The company added that it has slightly modified the image display design to make it "cleaner and focused on what you are searching for."

The image search update is rolling out worldwide across all devices -- desktops and mobile -- "over the coming weeks."