Want to find cool wallpaper? I was recently admiring the wallpaper my friend Jeff (who, incidentally, works for Microsoft) had on his computer. When I asked him about the source he showed me the new cool wallpaper image search provided in Bing. This posting will show you how to use Bing image search to find great wallpaper images.
I’m not sure if most people have a certain topic that they are partial to for wallpaper images, but I know for myself that I generally like expansive landscapes with an awesome sky and (for some reason) a single tree. In fact, I’ve written a previous posting about it which even makes an attempt at a psychological explanation. I also like representations of the globe (see the Desktop Earth post). Bing image search has a "wallpaper" filter that allows you to find wallpaper images for the topic of your choice.
Can I do this with Google?: although Bing and Google both provide size filters that can help you hone in on large images, Bing IMHO has a three-pronged advantage (1) the filters are right there in the sidebar whereas in Google you have to dig for them; (2) the Google filters are much more granular, which can be an advantage, except in this case I like the "wallpaper" size option in Bing, and most importantly (3) Bing’s image results are simply cooler; it seems to be looking for "wallpaper" images as such rather than big images. (Note this is what I found at least for terms I was searching for; make the comparison yourself).
Here’s a step by step.
- Go to Bing Image Search and type in a topic you like. Make it broad (do not make it too narrow) in order to get a decent set of results. For this exercise I typed in "Tree".
- Next, scroll down to the "size" filter in the left sidebar and click on "Wallpaper"
- Check out the set of results.
- Filter some more: if you like, you can use the other filters in the left sidebar to further filter the results by layout, color, style, etc.
Bonus: once you find desktop wallpapers you like, check out the sites where you found them for other cool wallpaper. For this posting I made two searches for the keywords "tree" and "cloud" and the images displayed above came from this, this, this, and this cool wallpaper site/sources.
Just wanted to quickly say thanks for this. I never bothered to take a look at bing as I am a google user however had a look at the images search because of your article and was impressed. Seems I’ll have to remember google isn’t the only game in town
Ano
From day one I have noticed that Bing is superior in image search.
the filters are right there in the sidebar whereas in Google you have to dig for them
Google Image Search interface may differ, depending what localized version you use. For me it shows controls in sidebar, exactly like Bing.
As for quality of results it is subjective, personally I think Google and Bing are about same.
By the way another cool trick is using image searches with app that rotates wallpapers. John’s Background Switcher for example.
I am not too sure about Bing. I made a search, and Bing gave me 4 results but Google gave me 4.940 results. Quite a difference, I would say.
Interestingly I think bing is using some sort of resolution detection. I’m using triplehead 19″ monitors on an ATI graphics card with Ubuntu 9.04, and a wallpaper search gave me 10 results all in the correct 3840×1024 size.
I’m impressed.
Very useful. Bing looks easier than google to find images.
Thanks..
Found it very useful…
I was unable to set the filters in Opera, so this (like so much other stuff from MS) is a no-go for me.
But thanks anyway, maybe some day it will work but I won’t switch my browser, if it doesn’t work in Opera it’s bye bye.
@XD
Works just fine for me, Opera 10.01
@Nick, as you said I too am pretty sure that Bing is detecting the resolution.
I searched for Hawaii with 2 different resolutions, filter = wallpaper.
1680×1050 gave me 103 results.
1024×768 320,000 results.
I think it’s awesome to get wallpapers already perfect for my current resolution.