Bing Adds HTML5 Video Support To Homepage

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 23, 2011
Updated • Dec 10, 2012
Microsoft, Search
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12

The Bing homepage and the Google homepage have several things in common. They both embed a search form prominently on the page. The page itself has been designed to be almost distraction free. Both pages have something else in common; Media on the page. The Google page displays so called Doodles instead of the standard logo on select days throughout the year, while the Bing homepage a new wallpaper image every day.

While that's distracting from the search form, it also is something that is highly popular.

Bing today announced an addition to their search engine's homepage. Users with HTML5 capable browsers may see a video playing instead of the static wallpaper image.

The developers note that this is not something that Bing users should expect to see every day, but that it will be used regularly in the future. Most modern web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer 9, Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera) should display the video just fine.

bing html5 video

It has to be noted that only the US homepage of the search engine is currently showing the HTML5 video on the frontpage. Users from other countries that head over to Bing need to change the country to United States first in the upper right corner to see the HTML5 video in action.

Bing announced that the videos will be rolled out to international markets in the coming months, so that users from all over the world can view the videos on localized versions of the search engine.

I personally have to admit that it looks really well on the homepage, and that loading times do not seem to be longer than before. I was not able to test the connection on a slower machine. It can be that users connecting with low speed Internet connection may have a different experience.

Microsoft has created a video that gives us a look behind the scenes of the Bing homepage.

Have you seen the new HTMl5 video on the Bing homepage? If so, what's your take on it?

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Comments

  1. ilev said on September 24, 2011 at 10:05 am
    Reply

    Another nail in Adobe’s Flash coffin.

  2. Sam said on September 24, 2011 at 2:43 am
    Reply

    My advice to you Stefanie, you will never ever be as cool as Google, just stop dreaming

    1. Swapnil said on September 24, 2011 at 1:24 pm
      Reply

      You like Google’s products? I hate them. Instead sometimes I do prefer Microsoft products over Google’s. Google is an evil browser sniffer, sniffing Opera at every step. Atleast most of the Microsoft services work flawlessly in Opera and when there is a browser sniffing from Microsoft; Microsoft provides with an option to continue using Opera without spoofing.

      1. Swapnil said on September 26, 2011 at 9:33 am
        Reply

        Forget Bing. It is being rolled out and there might be issues with some browsers, it doesn’t work even when I mask as Firefox. So this is an exception because it’s unconfirmed what is preventing Opera from accessing Bing HTML5 video. But other Microsoft products do have option to continue using Opera without spoofing.

      2. siavash said on September 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm
        Reply

        Microsoft just like google doesnt support Opera browser , Opera supports HTML5 video as well as FF chrome and safari … but the new bing page with video doesnt show up in Opera

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