Bing is bringing in the cool features with their new Beta of Visual Search. As one who is always looking for the next best thing on the horizon, this may have some potential.
Essentially, you start your search with a page that shows you the main categories, hot topics, ect.
You can start with one of the pictures on display or use the category menu on the left. For instance, if you click on ‘Shopping’ (one of the sections that will really benefit from this, IMHO) you see a display of shopping categories. Click on ‘Books’ and you are shown a really cool display (cover-flow style, almost) that you can scroll through.
With lots of additional features, I’m excited to see if the new look and feel will catch on. I think with new internet adopters, they will be pleased with the clean, futuristic feel of search. Those that have been using Google for a long time will probably find it cumbersome and ‘trinket’ feeling. Either way, I’m excited for the different approach and hopes it gets Google thinking about better ways to display their results.