• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 21, 2012

Microsoft Bing rolled out an update to its image search feature on Thursday, just weeks after redesigning its search results page. The company said images make up about 7% of searches. Bigger pictures now replace tiny thumbnails.

The suggestions tool offers refinements on queries for specific topics to make it easier to filter images by color, layout, size and type.

Microsoft is not the only engine to make changes to image and video search. Yahoo said it partnered with stock photo agency Getty Images to alter its image and video search engine. Through the partnership, Yahoo will connect searchers to more than 20,000 photos daily.

Getty photos will become available in Yahoo search results within minutes of being uploaded. The full-screen viewing option -- HTML5 technology -- also supports a tiled thumbnail view that displays larger content when the cursor rolls over the image. The video will start to play when the cursor hovers over it, similar to the option in Microsoft images.

Yahoo also introduced a search-while-you-watch feature for videos for those interested in searching for a video while watching the content. It now shows recommended and trending topics. Two types of filters on the left rail help to find the highest-quality images.

An icon identifies photos with at least 2 megapixels and a 1024 x 768 aspect ratio. For high-quality videos, Yahoo uses adaptive streaming technology to optimize the viewing experience.