Microsoft unveiled Bing 2.0 recently, with the most attractive new feature being “Visual Search.” Bing’s Visual Search lets searchers browse easily through a completely revamped user interface of “structured data sets from trusted partners” using Silverlight technology.

Bing’s Visual Search has earned a spot on the home page, but is missing from the top navigation once into Bing search results. For general searches where there are applicable Visual Search results, a teaser will appear within the results prompting users to explore related data visually.

The concept behind Visual Search is simple: use clear imagery to help users sort through large sets of data easily. Bing launched this feature with a fairly limited set of visual information: entertainment, famous people, online media, reference, shopping, sports and travel. Users must have Microsoft Silverlight installed on their browsers to fully experience Visual Search.

Due to the current limitations and product sets, it will be interesting to see how Bing rolls out more categories for the holiday shopping season. If new categories don’t roll out sooner, rather than later, Bing may have simply missed the boat on what otherwise would have been a hit with both users and retailers this holiday season.