I took a snapshot of the Live site homepage. I just get this design when I browse using Chrome. Seems to me that MSN is working hard to catch up. Give it a try and do some searches. Live Site
Ummm...yeah, Live search's homepage has had an image like that for sometime. It changes everyday. It was noted in the Live/MSN blog. They're trying to change some things up. I really don't mind the change.
I have always had problems with Live search. I do not know why, but I always get better results with other search engines