Google added a photo to its home page Thursday, in a one-day redesign that looks a lot like Microsoft's competing search engine Bing.

Google is still the monopoly player in search, capturing more than 65 percent of the market. Microsoft, which has struggled for years with its search engine, launched Bing last year, which now has about 12 percent of the search-engine market.

A major distinguishing feature for Bing's home page was a prominent photo that contrasted sharply with Google's home page, which has long prided itself on a clean, white design.

Google said in a company blog post that it would turn its home page over to a photo for 24 hours to highlight a new feature that allows a user to personalize the page with an image. Google has also put together a gallery of images from artists, including a photo of artist Dale Chihuly's glass orbs. Users can also paste in photos of their own.

"Whether you select an image from our new artist collection or prefer to have a more personal touch on your homepage, you’ll still enjoy the speed and ease of use that you’ve come to expect from Google," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, in the post.

Here is a screenshot of the Google home page with Chihuly's work "Niijima Floats."

From Pri0

Update 12:10 p.m.

Google has removed the photo from its home page and returned to its original white background. In an update to the company's blog post, Vice President Melissa Mayer said the company had planned to run a link to an explanation, but it didn't happen and users were confused that the changes were permanent.

"...Many people thought we had permanently changed our homepage, so we decided to stop today’s series early. We appreciate your feedback and patience as we experiment and iterate," Mayer wrote Thursday.