MSN Planning to Take on Google?

asyn42 writes "CNet is reporting what should be no surprise, Microsoft appears to be readying itself to take on Google for a position as the top search engine. The long range impact on the relationship between MSN and Yahoo/Inktomi is likely at risk."

Comments

Accurate results

[Fiver-]

Just for kicks, go to MSN's front page and search for Linux. If that's any indication of what their new search engine is going to be like, I'm sure we can rely on it to be a completely accurate and unbiased source of information.

Re:Good Luck! (more MSN searching history)

[Surakrout]

Here's some more history about Microsoft's (MSN's) searching capability.

Competition is increasing for Google

[XplosiveX]

MSN, as it turns out, is not the only newly announced pretender to Google's throne. Yahoo!, following its purchase of search engine Inktomi, recently said it would try to take back its early reputation as the Web's best search provider. And Overture's recent acquisition of the first really good Web search utility, AltaVista, gave indication that its hat is in the ring, too.

This is a lot of strange bedfellows. Google has been Yahoo's search provider, and Inktomi has been a longtime Microsoft provider. The musical chairs reinforce the notion that the act of searching isn't the key value of a search engine anymore.

Re:All I can say is

[zoobaby]

MS as been challenging google for a while. For those of us in the not so uber geek clan(IE users), this has been known. Whenever a page fails it takes you to a msn search page. Nice features that lures some away, but the content sucks and results are not as good as googles. The Google search engine is the best and others try to compete, which is a good thing. Good luck MS but my homepage remains faithfully to google.com.

Re:Microsoft vs. Google

[EvanED]

No kidding. I just ran some informal experiments, and from when I hit enter after entering "msn.com" it was 7 seconds before the Mozilla logo stoped to indicate that the site was fully loaded. Google leaded in less than 1. Search.msn.com took 4 sec. (A repeat in IE to test against possible caching got times of 11 vs. 3 1/2 sec. search.msn.com time wasn't timed before it was cached at which point it loaded essentially instantaneously, as did Google.)

Google API

[Therlin]

And don't forget about Google's API which works with several programing languages and gives the developer a lot of functionality.

I bet that MS would not offer that, or maybe a .NET only feature.

Google is more than just a search engine.

Re:Have you looked at the search options in IE?

[daBum]

IIRC, you can modify a registry setting to change where it looks by default. So, rather than it going to search.msn.com, you can change it to google.com.

Not sure if this still works, or if I'm misremembering. I'll have to dig through my notes and see.

Re:All I can say is

[Anonymous Coward]

It's notable that this functionality is customizable. MSN is the default site that Internet Explorer sends you to, but you can configure it to redirect you to one of the following sites instead:

AltaVista
Google
Ask Jeeves
Fast
DirectHit
Excite
GoTo
NorthernLig ht
Yahoo

I, of course, have it perform the search on Google.

If MSDN's search is any indication...

[nvrrobx]

...then they will fail miserably.

Half the time, I get JScript 'Out of Memory' errors or NO results from my searches...

Long live Google! :)

Found it

[daBum]

(I know, replying to your own posts is lame. Sorry, deal.)

The registry key that has this (on 2k) is: \HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search . There are 2 keys here - Customize Search & Search Assistant. Both of them point to http://ie.search.msn.com/...

Now, I can't find the address you're supposed to change the references "to" (as in, at google), but that's where to change it "from".

Re:Found it

[jazman_777]

Put this in a file called "google.reg" and double-click it. I got it from google's site. Clear out the spaces in "InternetExp lorer"

REGEDIT4


[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExpl orer\Main]
"Use Search Asst"="no"
"Search Page"="http://www.google.com"
"Search Bar"="http://www.google.com/ie"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExpl orer\SearchURL]
""="http://www.google.com/keyword/%s"
"provider"="gogl"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InternetExp lorer\Search]
"SearchAssistant"="http://www.google.com/ie"

Re:true

[Surak]

Yeah, but a lot of former AOLies are getting broadband and they aren't getting from AOL. They're getting it from their cable company. And they use Internet Explorer because that's what they're told to use by the cable company.

And the default search engine in IE, anyone?

Turn it off...

[Dave21212]

or change the default to something other than Microsuck.

[sarcasm]
It's actually quite simple:

Open IE and click on View | Explorer Bar | Search. This opens a side panel for searches. If your side panel has the animated search character, select Change Preferences and then select Change Internet Search Behavior. A list of popular search engines appears, and you can select your favorite from the list.

This new default setting applies only to searches done from the side panel. Entering keywords into the address bar will still trigger an MSN search. But if you leave the side panel open, you can search with your favorite engine without having to navigate to its site first. And you'll get search refinement suggestions in the sidebar along with your engine's results.

If you'd rather search from the address bar, after selecting Change Internet Search Behavior select With Classic Internet Search. Then close IE and reopen it. The side panel will now contain a Customize selection on the menu bar. Click on that to open the Customize Search Settings dialog. Click on the Autosearch settings button and you'll see a second dialog that lets you change the default engine for searches from the address bar itself. Once you've chosen the engine you prefer, you can close the side panel. Searches entered in the address bar will now be sent to your preferred search engine.

[/sarcasm]

Re:All I can say is

[daBum]

See my post here. Basically, it's a registry hack you have to make.

Laugh now, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps Microsoft knocking off Google isn't so far-fetched as it seems.

A lot of posts are arguing that Google is too well-entrenched, too effective and too smart to ever fail. Consider these points.

1) Google is entrenched. Yes, "google" has become synonymous with "internet search." But does that really mean people would never use anything else? Just because your mom uses "google" as a verb does not necessarily mean that she's a big fan of Google. More likely, she's just using the search engine, and its name, because everyone else does.

Don't assume that the non-geek masses would make any fuss about "googling" something through a different search engine. After all, most of us call facial tissues "kleenex" regardless of the manufacturer. Hell, in some parts of America, people refer to all pop (soda) as "Coke."

2) Google is effective. Sure, it's effective. But is the effectiveness really so great that no one else can come up with a substitute which is adequate, at least for the average user? Be honest, Google-fans, when was the last time you even used another search engine? Do people continue to praise Google's effectiveness on the basis of actual comparisons, or simply because "Google = best search engine" has become conventional wisdom? (And I don't believe that would be enough to protect Google, either, given that "google" has become generic enough that a lot of people might think they are "googling" regardless of which search engine they use. Think about how many people believe that their web browser is "AOL.")

I wonder how much of Google's popularity is actually due to its lack of visual clutter. The spartan layout is nice on its own merits, but because it presents information in a clean, efficient manner, I suspect that people are also more willing to believe that the results are efficient as well. If Microsoft can make a search function that is built into Windows, it could challenge Google's transparency and no-brainer ease of use.

3) Google is smart. The people at Google are clever, but I'm not sure anyone is too smart to make a critical mistake that Microsoft can take advantage of. After all, Microsoft has ready access to the vast majority of computer desktops, and many billions of dollars in cash that they are willing to spend in order to buy dominance in new markets.

Google isn't infallible. Remember the usenet fiasco? They angered a lot of people with that. Most of whom have forgiven and forgotten since, but odds are good that at some point, Google will make another big mistake. Or perhaps just a series of small ones. In any event, Microsoft can afford to wait for that to happen, and has a lot of experience in taking advantage of rivals' slip-ups.

I read something here on /. once which seems highly relevant to this issue. I don't have the exact wording, but to paraphrase:

"Microsoft could produce manure in paper bags, and people would eat it, as long as it was bundled."

Google Toolbar.

[uberdave]

I find the Google Toolbar to be quite a usefull little add-on to IE. Any time I want to search, it's there. Plus, it has the ability to highlight the search terms on the webpage. In addition, clicking on the search term highlight moves you from one occurence of the search term to the next one on the page.

khtml rocks

[grahamsz]

I've been using konqueror pretty much exclusively for the last few months... it's great.

A few more complex sites dont work and the odd site doesn't let you in until you fake the user agent, but it's come on leaps and bounds since 2.0.

Integration in longhorn?

[fulldecent]

http://www.etplanet.com/windows/longhorn/ Could it get any more integrated than having a search bar on the taskbar? This searchbar will search files on your computer, phonebooks... and "the internet" (read: MSN search)

Re:Google will only die if...

[KJKHyperion]

Maybe there is a way to have it return better results, but I haven't found it. I want it to be easier to narrow down my choices for APIs.

Stop fighting against the MSDN search engine, it's a waste of time. Download the Platform SDK (install only the documentation if you already have a developement environment, like Delphi or MinGW, because the thing is huge. Note that, for some reason, even the full download requires IE - but with wget and enough perseverance you'll be able to work around that): most of the time you won't even need to use the search - the keyword index is faster and straight to the point

If you need something that isn't in a downloadable SDK documentation pack, use Google. You know it's better, so why waste your time with the Microsoft search engine?

Why google works for me

[Merk]

I'm a geek. I search for "ant" on MSN, it talks about insects, but the first category mentioned, and the 4th link on Google is for the java build tool. I search for "ruby" on MSN I get precious stones, I search on Google and both the 1st category and the 1st search result are the programming language. I search for "lint" and MSN's search results are mostly about the stuff that you find in your belly button; Google's results are mostly about program validation.

I don't know which one is "better" but the results from Google match what I'm looking for. The ones on MSN don't.

Re:Google is my god

[cyril3]

They must like you. If I'd said that I'd get a -4 Off-topic. Heck that's what I would have given it.