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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?"
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...
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.
...why?
Why prevent a spider from crawling your page?
Just because it's associated with Microsoft?
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Okay, having just gone to the search engine site and entering in simple words, I get one of three results:
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).
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