(image courtesy Within Windows)

Are you getting the impression that Microsoft is pretty proud of its tile-based, “keep-it-simple-stupid” Metro user interface, as seen in Windows Phone 7? You should. After moving both its MSDN developer site and the Microsoft Download Center to the much simpler layout, Microsoft is about to give its Bing search engine a makeover.

The tiles across the bottom of the Bing screen will show various blurbs of information including local weather, sports and traffic, as well as current trending searches. The idea follows what we’ve seen from Windows 8: that these tiles are meant to display blurbs of useful information in a visually appealing way. And it’s also well-suited for touch-screen devices.

The changes have not appeared on the public site  yet, although several bloggers as well as tweets from Microsoft employees have verified that some type of change is likely to go live soon. Bing will also gain some other useful features to put it on a more even keel with market-leading Google.

Instant search results will be enabled, as well as features that wil make the process of searching more visual, according to Winrumors. It’s worth it to note that this is all in HTML5 — aiming to make the functionality pretty much platform-agnostic.

I’m curious to find out whether any of you are seeing the new changes, or better yet, what you think of Microsoft’s Metro interface in general. Is Redmond’s new focus on simplicity something you welcome?

 
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Read more: Bing, Microsoft, Search Engines