Like Google’s rich snippets and Yahoo’s Search Monkey, Bing is introducing a new flavor of richer search results named “Tiles.” Tiles are interatice logos or images displayed next to a search result. The tiles can share data in a more graphical way, such as a call to actions for downloading files, watching movies, movie ratings, restaurant ratings and more.

Currently the Tiles program is a beta program being tested with some webmasters. Microsoft plans on announcing more details of the program at SMX West. A Microsoft spokesperson told us:

“We are always looking at new ways to improve the Bing user experience and today we began testing “Tiles”. A tile is an interactive logo or image displayed next to a search result that helps people easily identify a trusted site and make faster, more informed decisions. We are initially partnering with approximately forty-five content providers to test tiles focused on entertainment, local, travel and auto.”

Here are some screen shots of Bing Tiles in action:

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Microsoft: Bing

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn