In an attempt to reiterate its commitment to personalization, Google Wednesday unveiled a new feature which will allow users to replace the site’s distinctive white search page background with an image of their choice – thereby one-upping rival Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

While Microsoft chooses a different background image for Bing on a day-to-day basis, the new Google feature will enable users to either upload their own photos or use any of the public pictures posted on Google’s online photo sharing service – Picasa.

Noting that the pictures will not affect the search engine’s load times, a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail: “The homepage does not load any slower. With or without a background image, the Google search elements show as quickly as before, allowing users to search just as quickly as without the new feature.”

Elaborating further, the spokesperson said that the pictures will be “post-loaded” – which means that the search elements will be loaded prior to the loading of the picture into the browser cache. As such, the image’s loading will not hamper the users’ search.

Marissa Mayer, vice president of search and user experience at Google, further revealed in a blog post that the Google search page customization will be rolled out in the US over the next few days; with a link on the bottom left-hand side of the search page indicating the availability of the features for the users.