Microsoft's New Search Engine Exits Beta Status

Microsoft's New Search Engine Exits Beta Status (http://feeds.pcworld.com/~r/pcworld/latestnews/~3/21283874/article.html)
Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
Monday, September 11, 2006

Software giant is eager to gain traction in competitive search engine arena

Microsoft this week will remove the beta, or test, tag from Live Search, its next-generation search engine, and make it the underlying search tool at its MSN.com portal.

The move comes as Microsoft anxious attempts to gain traction in the search engine market, where it remains a distant third behind leader Google and Yahoo. Because search engine-based advertising is a fast-growing, multibillion-dollar business, Microsoft has invested heavily in improving its search tools and accompanying ad network. It has, however, failed to make a dent in Google's dominance.

So Far, Third Place
In June, Google nabbed 45 percent of all U.S. search engine queries, while Yahoo got 29 percent and Microsoft 13 percent, according to comScore Networks. This represents a market share reduction for Microsoft of almost 3 percentage points from June 2005.

The enhancements in Live Search are notable, but many of them are available from other providers, so they aren't likely to boost Microsoft's market share in any significant way, said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

"Microsoft has to exceed Google's capabilities, not just match them," Sterling said. "Search engine usage is fairly habitual right now. Microsoft has to come up with dramatic innovations and create an obviously better search experience. That's difficult given the fierce competition."

Timetable for Switchover
Tomorrow through Thursday, Microsoft will replace the current MSN Search engine on MSN.com with Live Search, which features a revamped image search service, an improved local search, a redesigned user interface and new tools to refine query results, said Derrick Connell, general manager of the Microsoft search business unit. The change will take place progressively on different MSN host servers.

When users run a search on MSN.com, they will be taken to a Live Search results page on the Live.com domain, but there will be links there to guide users back to the MSN.com portal, he said.

They have a rough road ahead of them...

I don't know about that...


they have Google doing everything possible to trash Google's reputation as a useful search engine
they have truckloads of cash to throw at it or any other project they set their sights on
they have Vista coming out in 2007 with integrated search featuring MSN Search
did I mention Google sucks these days?
Yahoo is increasingly a shopping channel
Google really sucks these days!

lol.. yes Google really sucks these days, but as far as a search engine, they're still the best (I hear, I still use yahoo for most of my searches). It'll be interesting to see what they come up with to actually compete

I don't know about that...


they have Google doing everything possible to trash Google's reputation as a useful search engine
they have truckloads of cash to throw at it or any other project they set their sights on
they have Vista coming out in 2007 with integrated search featuring MSN Search
did I mention Google sucks these days?
Yahoo is increasingly a shopping channel
Google really sucks these days!


I couldn't agree more. I've been using Ask more and more to search. Google is disconbobulated. All Yahoo wants to show is ads. I never liked MSN much just because, I should check 'em out sometime.

Google was a pioneer they're quickly becoming a has-been, IMHO.

lol.. yes Google really sucks these days, but as far as a search engine, they're still the best (I hear, I still use yahoo for most of my searches). It'll be interesting to see what they come up with to actually compete

Saying they are the best when you don't even use it is why they prevail. People will follow your lead because you are in the biz.

If you use yahoo!, you are obviously convinced yahoo! is better and should not even mention google since you don't use it.

I'd love to see google take the fall. But they know they can depend on advertising like that and we as professionals have to be more decisive in making comments and giving advice or we are our own worse enemies.

Google sucks as a search engine of late, I use yahoo and ask. I have the opinion that google adsense combined with adwords is a cyclic spammers havan.

If you heard it was fun to jump off a bridge, would you not think twice? hehe before you get upset, think about it. ;)

read my post again.... I said google is still the best (I hear).... I was being sarcastic.
I'm surprised you didn't recognize it

Sorry, I missed the intend. Perhaps it could have been worded better to get that message across. As we have discussed, a lot seems to be lost in the written word when it comes to wit and sarcasim.

I was having fun, everyone else knew it, and I will continue to do so. ;)

Plus... if you read my post again... you'll see that I did not say that I didn't use Google. Not once is that in my post. I said I use yahoo for most of my searches. I will probably continue to use both until something better comes along. Microsoft might be it, might not be.
My comments are not advertising. They are comments. Let's leave them as such.

I still use yahoo for most of my searches).
Same here OS. Mainly because yahoo is my homepage and so it's the easiest and quickest. But I do think there's too much shopping stuff on there, and it seems like it's almost always for Ebay, which is another site I don't/won't use. As for Google, I really think their index is messed up... my site got dropped from search almost a month and a half ago, and it mysteriously came back about a week ago, only to disappear again and then re-appear. I think the longest it has been searchable at one time is about 4 hours, then it disappears again. And I know it's not anything dance-related.... my site has not had one google referral since it originally disappeared and prior to that I was getting quite a few. So i've just about given up on Google and don't depend on them for any traffic, unfortunately

Anyway I may give the new MSN a shot.... I have to admit partly because my site has ranked very high with them in search results and so I have to thank them for that! Google on the other hand, when I even show up my search rankings are pretty pathetic....:(

Someone did a search of my new site yesterday and had me go look. I couldn't believe how high I was ranked! I'm thinkin' I'm going to like MSN ;)

I agree, somehow my MSN results are even better than my Yahoo results, and i've only been in MSN for about a week (that was my only complaint was it took so long to get into MSN). But now I am there I like it. I wonder if MSN likes vBulletin forums? Maybe it assumes it's an actual working forum and not a spam site or something like that....

I think it does, because both my html site and my forum are indexing very well on MSN. When I did a search for my keywords I was right up there near the top this morning