In a further bid to distance itself from Google and gain more of the search engine market share, Microsoft has announced the latest addition to its Bing facility: a new visual search option.

Todd Schwartz, the representative for Bing at Microsoft, explained that a Microsoft Research project found that consumers are able to process images 20 per cent faster than text-only results following an internet search, making the new beta offer from the organisation quicker with aiding users in finding what they want.

The website's newest feature was officially announced yesterday at TechCrunch50 and hopes to "formulate and refine" search details, including for those at small businesses in IT, through more structured means.

Mr Schwartz said: "What you'll see is an amazing new visual search experience.

"Visual Search allows you to quickly scroll through the galleries or do a one-click refinement using the quick tabs on the left, which are specifically relevant to the type of results you are browsing through."

Last month, Yahoo emphasised that it still saw itself competing with Bing, despite its new website being powered by the engine following an agreement between itself and Microsoft.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.