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.

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: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]

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.