Bing's new visual search tools are both stupid and cool

In the latest development from the TechCrunch50 conference in SF, Microsoft's (MSFT) VP Yusuf Mehdi spent fifteen minutes explaining the wonders of its new search system, Bing, to the biggest concentration of Internet influencers in the U.S. The biggest news is that Bing will make it possible to search for products visually, a function that has been tried before, but not to any great effect. Microsoft has definitely done a better job.

Results sift automatically as users navigate a bunch of sliders that dictate price, brand and other variables. One problem with all this is that many customers won't necessarily want to search for a digital camera visually, and they certainly won't want to search among 1500 models.