Microsoft search engine Bing has launched a beta of Visual Search, a form of search that lets users sift through image-based results, rather than links.

"Start with pictures to find results faster," the tagline reads. Silverlight must be installed to use the feature.

One Silverlight is active, users can search across a number of categories — including shopping, sports or celebrities — and receive results instead of images back. Under shopping, for example, 10 different search boxes will yield a number of products for sale across the web, including digital cameras, books and cars.

"The new product would appear to have interesting implications for search advertisers—particularly brand advertisers that typically deliver their most effective messages through visual images rather than text (such as movie trailers or even packaged goods brands)," MediaWeek pointed out.

Microsoft recently sealed a deal with Yahoo enabling Bing to power Yahoo's search — meaning Bing now reaches about 30% of the US search market, versus Google's 65% (via comScore).

Visual Search currently only appears to be active in the States.