Microsoft Launches Their New SE Today
Microsoft (MSFT) unveils its much-talked-about revamped Internet search engine on Thursday to compete with Google and Yahoo — but at a test site rather than the main MSN page.
The company's premier Web site, MSN, will still offer the old MSN search technology, which Internet analysts say has never been competitive with search giants Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO).
Microsoft's new search technology is being tested at beta.search.msn.com and won't move to MSN until "early next year," says MSN director Adam Sohn.
MSN is the No. 2 Web destination, attracting 88.6 million visitors in September, according to Internet measurement service Nielsen/NetRatings. Yahoo is No. 1.
Microsoft has said many times this year that it would retool MSN search from the ground up. It first showed a preview of new search technology in July, but that was with a smaller index of Web pages.
MSN's beta site has increased its reach to 5 billion pages. That was 700,000 more than Google, until Google trumped it Wednesday by upping its index to 8 billion. MSN's beta site will offer three new features:
•Search Near Me. A tool to more effectively find local services. Yahoo offers something similar on its main page; Google's local search is at a separate site.
•Direct questions. Users can post such queries as "What is the capital of Turkey?" and get a free answer from Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia. MSN currently answers such questions with links to mostly irrelevant sites.
•Music purchases. A search for Shania Twain will bring up links to the country music singer's Web site, plus the ability to preview and buy her songs online from MSN Music.
By year's end, Microsoft says it also will offer a desktop search function that allows users to search through files on a computer's hard drive — as Google does now.
Google dominates search, with 46.7% of all Internet queries, according to August figures from measurement firm ComScore Media Metrix. Yahoo has 30.6%; MSN, 14.4%.
MSN has lagged behind Google and Yahoo in search because it was using old technology that sorely needed updating, says Danny Sullivan, editor of online newsletter SearchEngineWatch.
MSN search results have been provided by Yahoo subsidiary Inktomi, which uses a smaller index of Web pages than competitors. Additionally, "Results were too influenced from paid-inclusion listings," Sullivan says.
With the larger index and new search tools, users will see "drastic improvements" in relevancy to MSN queries, says Sohn.
Sullivan says that in his tests, Google is still more useful on most queries. "I'd still tell people to use Google first, because by and large you'll find the results more relevant and consistent," he says.
The search wars have heated up this year in step with a rebound in online advertising. Search ads — those little text-based ads next to search results — will grow to $5.6 billion in 2008 from $2.7 billion this year, says market tracker Forrester Research.
Forrester analyst Charlene Li says the bottom line on Microsoft's search moves is that the world's biggest software maker is now able to compete with Google and Yahoo.
"This finally brings Microsoft to the table," she says. "It's like there's this party, and one person has been missing — Microsoft. Now the party can begin."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...rch-usat_x.htm
Well it looks like we may finally get to see if Microsofts new SE is going to be any good or, like the past few times news about it has been posted, it still sucks the proverbial donkeys balls.
Regards,
Lee
