Goodbye Clip Art, hello Bing Images

Goodbye, Clip Art. The image library that has powered Microsoft's Office productivity suite since the 1990s is no more.

 

Replacing Clip Art will be royalty-free images curated by Microsoft's search engine Bing, Microsoft's Doug Thomas said in a blog post.

 

"Starting today, customers searching for Online Pictures in Office desktop products worldwide will view and download royalty-free images curated through Bing Images. The Office.com Clip Art and image library has closed shop. Usage of Office’s image library has been declining year-to-year as customers rely more on search engines," Thomas said.

 

Thomas added Bing Image Search has higher-quality and more updated images that provide "more variety."

 

He added Bing uses a copyright filter based on the Creative Commons licensing system.

 

Because of this, he said the Bing images can be used, shared or modified for personal or commercial use.

 

Meanwhile, a Microsoft help page echoed the closing of the Office Clip Art site, and has instructions to insert pictures from Bing to an Office app. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News