Microsoft Offers A Peek At New Search Engine

ObsessiveMathsFreak writes "The Inquirer is reporting that Microsoft is offering a preview of its new search technology. The search engine preview has a minimalist interface, similar to Google. Microsoft claims over one billion web pages searched, but admits the fact that searching is a little slow. This technology hasn't yet been incorporated into MSN Search, though the site claims it eventually will be. In related news, the Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft are to improve the regular MSN Search site by removing paid advertisements from regular internet searches, a move that will cost them 'tens of millions of dollars.' Are the Search Engine Wars finally upon us?"

Comments

"fisherman"

[Chris Pimlott]

Okay, random test. Search for "fisherman":

Sorry, no results were found containing "fishermen"

1 billion entries? Please.

Google:

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,350,000 for fishermen [definition]. (0.33 seconds)

Nice work so far MS...

They have to have something up their sleeve...

[dobedobedew]

So far, google has given me no reason to distrust them. Microsoft on the other hand... No thanks. I gave up on MS years ago. I'm sure I am not the only ./'er who feels that way.

Biased

[mogrinz]

Try a search for 'email' or 'calendar' and guess who always comes up first? Not exactly impartial results, are they?

hmm...

[gyratedotorg]

MSN's website is the most popular internet site for US users, with nearly 100 million unique visits each month

im slightly off topic here, but i cant help but wonder if the web browser included with the most widely used desktop os in the world DIDNT use msn.com as the default home page, would anyone have any reason to go there?

Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[lowe0]

While I'm normally pretty pro-MS (I actually like their products - I'm not kidding) MS stands very little chance here.

They're fighting a marketshare war, and searches are pretty much a commodity - unless they've got something very specialup their sleeves, their searches are the same as anyone else's.

And let's face it, Google won the mindshare a long time ago. Just like everyone knows what Windows is, everyone knows what Google is, even non-techs. Hell, it's damn near a generic term for searching by now.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[dmeranda]

Tell that one to Netscape, Inc. Netscape was synonomous with "browser", or heck, even with the word "Internet". And Gates was even going around saying the Internet was just a fad. And still the big monopoly crushed them.

Now at least Google doesn't appear to be asleep at the wheel like Netscape was, but Microsoft is sort of like Wal Mart. Doesn't matter who you are or how superior your product/service; if they enter your market you have to be running scared.

The biggest item of interest is all the patents Google has. I normally hate software patents, but that may be what saves Google from the big MS monopoly. And since Google uses Linux, they can flaunt them a bit more than most companies.

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[Anonymous Cowtard]

It's also got the French Military Victories thing too, though without an "I'm feeling lucky" button, it doesn't take you right to the page, just displays it as #1 in the search.

Strange how the rankings on these two are similiar to Google's right off the bat, eh?

Re:Search for Linux

[akiy]

A search for 'search' returns a list of websites that all contain the word search in their domain name, none of them are any of the good ones - Google, AV, Yahoo, and (even!) MSN.

It sure looks like they place a heck of a lot of weight on a search term if it's in the site's domain name. I think their algorithm needs a lot more tweaking if that's true.

Re:Boycott

[DaHat]

...why?

Why prevent a spider from crawling your page?

Just because it's associated with Microsoft?

Re:Boycott

[bje2]

my thoughts exactly...who are you hurting there? not really microsoft...you're just hurting yourself...why *wouldn't* you want to be indexed in their search engine?

I for one, welcome new search engine warriors

[clintp]

The First Search Engine War was fought years ago, and has been long over. But a blank check was given and all kinds of approaches and interfaces emerged. The winner was Google, though other technologies are still groveling for the spotlight. They won with a good interface, good results, without too much junk.

A Second Search Engine War might help to refine things even further. Microsoft seems to be starting from Google's UI model (everyone loves a winner) and working from there. That's great. There's not really a whole lot of ways for the users to lose here. Things might get even better!

You need viable weapons to participate in a war.

[digital photo]

Okay, having just gone to the search engine site and entering in simple words, I get one of three results:

• Error page
• No results
• Some results, but differs each time

They claim to have indexed billions of pages... billions of pages of what exactly?!?

To participate in a war, you need reliable weapons to stand a chance. Teoma, Yahoo, Google, etc... they all have viable search technologies. MSN's search engine at their beta site is comparable to a blunderbuss. Highly inaccurate, prone to misfirings, and just as predictable in results.

Some people say "linux" gets results and some people don't. When I ran a search just now, it didn't get any results. Then I got an error page.

I tried searching for my website with "polygon comics" which is indexed in every search engine. None on their beta engine.

I tried "palo alto car show", which is likewise indexed by every search engine out there. Also no results from the MSN beta search engine.

From the impressions posted by other people who have been trying the system, it sounds like when the MSN beta search system is working, it ranks based on domains, favouring cyber-squatters and basically giving you info which may not even be relevant to your search.

RELEVANCE is what is important in a search system. That is more than just matching keywords. If MSN hopes to launch their own search which doesn't depend on other peoples' more reliable search technologies, they will need to work a hell of alot harder than what they've put up on their beta site.

As a long time user of search engines, I think MSN beta is a piece of ****(replace with a four letter explative of your choosing).

Re:Search for Linux

[southpolesammy]

I don't think that it's too much to assume that if a public test of a technology is being offered that said technology should be able, even if only partially, to satisfy the testers requirements. It's not like this is an in-house alpha product that may have an incomplete interface or an unseeded database -- this is a public beta test aimed at user acceptance testing. Given that search results are sparse at best, I'd say their UAT is not going very well.