Google last week began allowing users to add full-screen images to main Google search page. On Wednesday evening, the company announced it has collaborated with artists to create a gallery of background images and that it would by default place these on the home page with a white Google logo over the next 24 hours. The pictures include landscape photos from National Geographic as well as artworks by sculptors and others, much the same way that Microsoft’s Bing search engine features a colorful photo each day.

On Twitter, complaints about the background rolled in quickly. “Hideous Google Background assaulting our eyes this morning,” wrote one user. “We don’t like the background that much … White is fine, really,” wrote another.

People also were looking for ways to get rid of the images, according to Google’s own list of hot searches. Users can change the background image by clicking a link in the lower left corner of the home page. Google provides plain colors as well as white as options under editor’s picks, although the Google logo remains white even if the images are changed. Tech blog Mashable also suggested Google SSL as a possibility. Google SSL provides secure searches on a white page but is still in beta testing. If that isn’t an option, users can wait a few more hours until Google goes back to its usual look.

“The Google home page should be back to normal tomorrow where you can keep it in its simple and classic look, choose to upload an image or photo, or switch back and forth,” a Google spokeswoman told Digits in an email.

In addition to drawing complaints from some users, the images drew a few mocking comments from Microsoft executives in Europe. Microsoft believes the images are one way in which Google is emulating Microsoft search engine Bing, which features colorful photos, the Journal’s Nick Wingfield and Jessica Vascellaro reported Thursday. Google told the Journal that it was not imitating Bing.

But the Telegraph pointed to several Microsoft tweets about the similarities, including one by Peter Bale, executive producer of the MSN UK network, that said it was “intriguing to see friends at Google borrowing the Bing homepage #photography idea