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

Search for Linux

[grandmofftarkin]

Redhat, SUSE, Mandrake, etc. don't turn up on the first page. WTF?

Oh I get it. Microsoft don't want their competitors turning up in search results.

Hmmm ... I think I'll stick to google.

Re:Search for Linux

[SimplexO]

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.

Hrm...

Re:Search for Linux

[strictnein]

very similar to how it turns up for a seach on Linux. All sites that have a *.linux*.* type domain address.

Is this their new search scheme? Type in a word and we'll return matching domain names? That's awesome technology!

Re:Search for Linux

[mledet]

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

Re:Search for Linux

[gid13]

Heh... And my first search for Knoppix resulted in an error. But it seems to be working now. Maybe it's just being slashdotted?

Re:Search for Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you just that desperate for antiMS comments that you would come up with a way to troll this?

Linux.com is the FIRST hit. What moe would you like. You act like their first hits are anti-Linux articles!

Fucking idiot.

Re:Search for Linux

[grandmofftarkin]

SUSE turns up as search result 69! ;-)

Is Microsoft trying to say something here?

SUSE is like sex!

Re:Search for Linux

[scotch]

Sorry, no results were found containing "wikipedia"

Ha ha.

Re:Search for Linux

[Otter]

Meanwhile, Linux.com is #3 at Google, behind Linux.org and Red Hat.

Actually, what this all suggests is that the Microsoft search weights the domain name much more heavily than Google does. Everything in their top 10 has "linux" in the domain.

Re:Search for Linux

[mattkinabrewmindspri]

I got that too.

Re:Search for Linux

[awhelan]

MSN was famous for this. It is probably a coincidence since I doubt they'd dare do it again, but a few years ago Microsoft was accused of intentionally blocking certian linux websites from search results.

Re:Search for Linux

[Zorilla]

SUSE is like sex!

Well, it does have SaX2. Close enough for most slashdotters.

Re:Search for Linux

[awhelan]

With a little "after-the-fact" research I found This Slashdot Article

Re:Search for Linux

[grandmofftarkin]

"Linux.com is the FIRST hit. What moe would you like. You act like their first hits are anti-Linux articles!"

Linux.com has 'Linux' as part of the domain name (as does every other Linux result on the front page). I don't think this would be a site people knew to Linux would have trouble finding even without a search engine. However, the companies I mentioned are some of the top Linux companies but you can't find any of them mentioned until result 69 (SUSE) at the earliest. These are some of the sites that I think people would want a search engine to find.

Are you telling me you don't find it the least bit odd?

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:Search for Linux

[vk2]

So much for 100 millions. Instead they would have given the same money to google to remove the paid sidebar ads and iframe the results.

Re:Search for Linux

[betelgeuse-4]

Search for "microsoft" and only 1 result is returned, compared to Google's 103 million.

Re:Search for Linux

[strictnein]

so you're saying the if I search for "People in the primary election" they shouldn't return peoplesprimary.com?

Re:Search for Linux

[Unnngh!]

hell, a search for "linux" yields:

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

This is worse than the old MSN search, which returned a page on microsoft.com about helping people migrate from Linux to Windows.

Maybe it just uses regexes? /linux/i ?

Re:Search for Linux

[rmull]

And me - several times now. Other searches seem to work though...

Re:Search for Linux

[grandmofftarkin]

"Actually, what this all suggests is that the Microsoft search weights the domain name much more heavily than Google does. Everything in their top 10 has "linux" in the domain."

Yes, I think you are right. Try searching for Windows. Again, all the first few results have Windows in the domain name. So to get good search engine ranking you show just buy a domain name with your keywords in the title. This search engine feels like it is from 1995.

Re:Search for Linux

[RealityMogul]

It's very quick for a single word, but do two or more words and it gets bogged down.

Re:Search for Linux

[MikeDX]

i'm not sure if they are trying to point everything to themselves, or "internal server error" is an actual error..

Re:Search for Linux

[WebCrapper]

The sad part is, MSFT is just using the Slashdot crowd as real life load testing...

Re:Search for Linux

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

I'm not having any problems finding LOADS of hits for "linux", though the first time I tried I got an error. But I'm not surprised that Slashdotters are already suggesting something shifty, completely ignoring the fact that this is quite clearly NOT a finished product. Typical.

I wonder if I search for "knee jerk", do I find Slashdot?

Re:Search for Linux

[chris_mahan]

But it's gonna be real fun for the QA team when they look at the terms slashdotters entered. I they thought Brittney was going to be on the list, they have something else coming.

Re:Search for Linux

[Hellburner]

On the MSFT engine:

"bill gates asshole" = no results

On Google:

"bill gates asshole" = 29,000 results.

Odd.

Re:Search for Linux

[thePMG]

Try searching for "Microsoft sucks"

Re:Search for Linux

[mfinn999]

Not a good scene when it's slashdotted...

Re:Search for Linux

[Threni]

> Windows - Where do you want to go today?
> Linux - Where do you want to go tomorrow?
> BSD - Are you guys coming o

I don't get it.

Re:Search for Linux

[leomekenkamp]

I expected the first hit to be something like this. This does not seem to be the Microsoft we all love to hate.

Re:Search for Linux

[vk2]

Oops... Stupid me - htmlized my signature and messed it up.

Re:Search for Linux

[Zate]

a search for "google" (http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q= google&FORM=SMCRT) gets an error.. lol

Re:Search for Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, typical microsoft error message. no explanation, just a meaningful hex number.

my favorite microsoft error of all time is:

"Not enough memory or disk space to complete the"

Re:Search for Linux

[iocat]

It's not just wikipedia...

Sorry, no results were found containing "rabbit"

(Google found 6.8 million, fyi).

At what point do the search engine creators just decide that their engine isn't ready for prime time? I mean, a rabbit is a fairly common thing.

Re:Search for Linux

[Bellyflop]

"crappy search engine" also returned no results but at least I was still on their search page!

Re:Search for Linux

[TheRealMindChild]

Maybe because not in a hundered billion years SHOULD ANYONE THINK that running something like FreeBSD as a desktop OS is a good idea.

Re:Search for Linux

[phiwum]

You're lucky. Right now, I'm getting:

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

Dunno why. "Microsoft XP" returns a single hit too. Funky.

Re:Search for Linux

[sp1nl0ck]

Type in linux better than windows and MSN search turns up nothing. Type the same terms into Google and you get nearly 2.2 million pages. Go figure.

Re:Search for Linux

[Richard_at_work]

What the FUCK? I tried this when it was in "The Mysterious Future" and for the search term 'linux' it gave me multiple (valid) pages worth of returns with stuff like "The Linux Journal" in there.

Re:Search for Linux

[whereiswaldo]

Before it got slashdotted I mirrored it here. ;)

Re:Search for Linux

[sponge_absorbent]

hmmm, it didnt seem to find any results for "microsoft sucks", despite the fact www.microsoftsucks.com exists... how strange

Re:Search for Linux

[LetterJ]

No, but a search for "whitehouse" shouldn't bring up whitehouse.com before whitehouse.gov.

Re:Search for Linux

[Axmondo]

Search for 'Apple' returns 15 results, no next button. Search for 'Lovely' (with a capital L) returns 'Sorry, no results were found containing "lovely"'. Search for 'lovely' (with a lowercase l) returns lots of results. Search for 'microsoft comedy routine' returns no results. Oh well... better stick to Google for now...

Re:Search for Linux

[Anonymous Writer]

I just tried it and this is what I got...

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

SEARCH TIPS

1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?

2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".

3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

The second attempt got results. The third got this message again. Subsequent attempts got results. I'm sure it's just a bug, but it's funny.

Re:Search for Linux

[DarkMantle]

Search for mp3 resulted in 0 results
ut2004 = 0 Results
open source = 0 results

I just thought those were interesting numbers

Re:Search for Linux

[node 3]

Try searching for windows security

At first this seemed like a shortcoming of the search engine, but upon further pondering I realized that maybe it's actually a highly advanced system which has provided the entirety of accurate, relevant and useful results that can be found on the web for that specific query.

Re:Search for Linux

[ghum]

You are very lucky with not getting Redhat, Suse, Mandrake...
look at me:

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

Re:Search for Linux

[Anonymous Writer]

I just tried "antitrust microsoft" and got no results!

Re:Search for Linux

[realdpk]

Let's not discount them because of that, though. Who needs 103 million results? A good search engine would only need to give you one or two pages of results to your query (assuming its more specific than that one word ;) ).

Re:Search for Linux

[Xformer]

More like 15 now, but they're still all in one place... one guess where :-)

Re:Search for Linux

[Solar Limb]

I entered "camcorder reviews" and it came back with no results.

Strong. Nice first impression.

Re:Search for Linux

[knitterb]

Sorry, no results were found containing "windows"

Re:Search for Linux

[Unnngh!]

Yeah, everything on the page now appears to be b0rked;) I tried a lot of other searches. I think /. broke the site...

Re:Search for Linux

[Anonymous Writer]

Okay, it worked on the third go. I guess you have to repeatedly ask it the same question before you get an answer, kind of like cross-examining a Microsoft executive in court.

Re:Search for Linux

[SmasKenS]

Oh I get it. Microsoft don't want their competitors turning up in search results.

Well, the first thing I searched for was 'google' and it returned one (1) result: www.google.com

Re:Search for Linux

[p0et]

Also happened to me... when I hit refresh it returned results... some bugs still need to be ironed out, I guess.

But at the least in the title bar it appears:

Linux -- More useful everyday

wich is quite right! ;)

Re:Search for Linux

[iocat]

Ok, I searched again about an hour later and found:

Results 1-15 of about 1804205 containing "rabbit"

So it does appear to be a bug, and not the fault of anti-rabbit forces inside Microsoft.

Re:Search for Linux

[SmasKenS]

I get a similar error every time I search for 'OS', other things work, but if I try 'OS' again I get the same error.

Re:Search for Linux

[dinojemr]

Is this the first time that a Microsoft site has been Slashdotted? What is the world coming to?

Re:Search for Linux

[Cromac]

1: it is very very slow, unless they switch to a massive cluster of *nix boxes like google they have no chance of being as quick (or even in the same league)

I think it's deliberate. Try searching for "microsoft" it returns who knows how many hits (hard to tell since they don't tell you like Google) several pages worth, in under 1 second. Search for anything else and it's slow as hell.

Coincidence?

Re:Search for Linux

[jhurani]

Searching for "Microsoft" gives 15 and searching for "microsoft" gives 1.
May be there is some stricmp/strcmp confusion. ;)

Re:Search for Linux

[Tony-A]

kind of like cross-examining a Microsoft executive in court

or using Microsoft software. If it doesn't work the first time, try again, second or third try often works. Exactly the opposite behavior one expects from OpenBSD.

Re:Search for Linux

[the Hewster]

Well, that figures... But if you really want to laugh try searching for "xfree86" and then "xfree85"

Re:Search for Linux

[KarmaMB84]

I tried all of those and they come up fine.

Re:Search for Linux

[Shaklee39]

Look up, its the joke over your head.

Re:Search for Linux

[malfunct]

I got that, so I clicked search again, and bam got lots of sites, though they all had linux in the domain name.

Re:Search for Linux

[UU7]

In other news Elmer Fudd was let go from microsoft and returned those waskally wabbits

Re:Search for Linux

[ArcticPCs]

I guess that's why it came back with zero results when I searched for "microsoft sucks". I thought they were just being underhanded and not listing negative sites. Looks like instead that their search engine simply DOES suck. =)

Re:Search for Linux

[Tackhead]

> No, but a search for "whitehouse" shouldn't bring up whitehouse.com before whitehouse.gov.

Why not? :)

Re:Search for Linux

[krewemaynard]

i did a search for gentoo, and the first result was store.gentoo.org, followed bya bunch of other subpages at gentoo.org, but never just plain ol' gentoo.org itself! so i thought i'd be smart and redo the search:

"Sorry, no results were found containing "gentoo" "

yeah, this tech preview looks like a real winner to me.

Re:Search for Linux

[Loco3KGT]

No, it's obviously not, because I typed in

steve gula

And was not given my website : http://www.stevegula.net

BTW, I am not affiliated with Mula Gula, the horse, who will turn up in a search on my name

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.

Re:Search for Linux

[beowulfcluster]

That's because they don't have a database, they're actually searching the whole internet for every search! Revolutionary! They start at microsoft.com so of course searches for Microsoft will be quick, they don't have to go very far to fill up the first page of search results. For other things they have to crawl further out on the internet until they find enough stuff. Don't blame Microsoft if it's slow, it's the Internet that's too slow. With adequate pipes all the whole Internet would be at your fingertips immediately. Amazing! Changed pages will show up immediately in this wonderful search engine, no more need to wait for google to catch up!

Re:Search for Linux

[Bozdune]

I refuse to use this piece of software, period. Redmond are pulling their usual stunt of releasing crap just for the publicity, so all their shills can say, "Golly wow, Microsoft's gonna have a much better search engine real soon now."

I'm so sick of this strategy I could puke. The best way to mess with their heads is to totally ignore them. So many good companies have been killed by these people, why help them at all, even by helping them debug their system, or driving up their click rate.

Just wait: the next news release will boast about "how many millions" of search requests they've "already serviced" and how quickly they'll grow to surpass Google, etc. etc. etc. -- all so they have more Pablum to feed to the clueless army of MSCE IT slaves looking in every corner for justifications for keeping Microsoft around.

Re:Search for Linux

[bert.cl]

Odd, looking for Mike Rowe Soft doesn't return any results...

Re:Search for Linux

[ghum]

and Even worse:

You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content.

Warning: If you are under 18 or live in an area where it is illegal for you to view explicit content, please revise your search.

and no link to get at porn. Bah.

Re:Search for Linux

[Bloater]

It seems to search for exact phrases and is case sensitive.

I tried "Microsoft sucks" and it found some. and "Linux" did well, but "linux" found nothing at all!

There seems to be an exception to the case-sensitive rule: "microsoft" works just like "Microsoft".

All in all, for a billion sites indexed this search engine is so far ... crap

Re:Search for Linux

[Spaceman40]

Yes, but did you notice that the title is then:
"MSN Search: Linux -- More Useful Everyday"

I think that's awesome.

Re:Search for Linux

[Short Circuit]

A search for xfree86 still doesn't work.

xfree85 returns results, however, as does xfree87.

Re:Search for Linux

[LnxAddct]

At least they got something right!
Regards,
Steve

Re:Search for Linux

[srichand]

i think the search database changes every few seconds... Sorry, no results were found containing "linux" says it all...

Re:Search for Linux

[filmsmith]

Funny. I just tried searching for 'Search' on MSN's search page and Google came up first.

On Google, however, the same search returned Google as being SEVENTH!

fs

Re:Search for Linux

[Eraser_]

I searched for google and look what I got:

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q =g oogle&FORM=SMCRT

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

Re:Search for Linux

[ad0gg]

Its not the domain name, its the text between the anchor tag that makes a difference. You can see it with the "French Defeats" search and other humor searches where the search term isn't even the domain name or the page itself.

MSN beta search works little like google's page rank where inbound links are counted toward search placement, but it looks like msn places lot more emphasis on it. Problem with this, it breeds link farms and spamming the results.

Re:Search for Linux

[neosar82]

searched for 10.4 tiger resulted in: MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b13 I'm sure it had nothing to do with what I was searching for, but still not exactly a good first impression.

Re:Search for Linux

[dmitrygr]

heh, that's nothing. search "linux" here's whjat you get: Sorry, no results were found containing "linux" SEARCH TIPS 1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly? 2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie". 3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Re:Search for Linux

[litghost]

On the other hand search for particular *nix functions, and this engine out-performs google by leaps and bounds. Try it.

Re:Search for Linux

[strictnein]

Your horse is beautiful!

AMAZING! I'm sure I'm not the first to say it, but Mula Gula is a horse who has by any stretch of the imagination defied the odds!

Re:Search for Linux

[starburst]

With results like that it should be called MicroSearch.

I searched for "the" and MicroSearch returned ZERO, Google had about 5,460,000,000.

Re:Search for Linux

[Frizzle Fry]

I refuse to use this piece of software, period. Redmond are pulling their usual stunt of releasing crap just for the publicity

This strategy is known as "release early, release often". You let people play with/ beta-test your software before it is finished, even though you know that it will result in slashdot trolls five years from now condemning it because of bugs that haven't existed since the beta (just like everyone bashes windows for things that haven't been true since 98), since it ultimately leads to better quality. I think that this "stunt" works too well for Redmond, or anyone else making software, to ever stop pulling it.

Re:Search for Linux

[Frizzle Fry]

At what point do the search engine creators just decide that their engine isn't ready for prime time?

I think at the point when they acknowledge that it's a "tech preview" and actually warn you that it isn't ready for primetime.

Re:Search for Linux

[Bozdune]

Good point. However, a lot of things that Slashdot trolls have been complaining about since '98 continue to be true today. How about the XP dispatcher? Still can't get smooth performance without a second CPU. Corbato et al solved this problem in 1961. There is no excuse.

Re:Search for Linux

[jaysones]

Yes, but there aren't that many rabbits that can use the internet, so it shouldn't be a big problem. :D

Re:Search for Linux

[Shadez666]

I don't think the search algorithm is "fixed" - Search for crack windows server 2003 serial and the first item on the list produces a working activation fix :-)

Time to ditch the tinfoil hat.

Re:Search for Linux

[ceswiedler]

It's funny that the mantra for Linux, and basically Open Source in general, is 'release early, release often.'

Re:Search for Linux

[flopiano]

And if you search for "Operating System"
you get www.gnu.org ,Debian,Unix, FreeBSD,Solaris
etc. but not Windows.

So it works pretty well...

Re:Search for Linux

[It'sYerMam]

I reckon that since all microsoft can seem to do is copy google, I shall hail google as the winner and use their service. Notice that the new interface is incredibly googlish - non-cluttered and generally nice to use.
This would be a good thing, but it's already here - too late, go home. (Yes, I expect this is biased, but hey, they deserve it.) In addition, google's policy is be nice, so I'd much rather use their engine.
There is the small thing that typing "microsoft sucks" without quotes returns microsoft.com, whereas for google it returns relevance.

Re:Search for Linux

[Lispy]

Lol, I have the opposite problem. My site is all over it. I am listed with EVERY single HTML-page on my domain, mostly those that are under the hood and are not even linked on the homepage or anywhere else on my site. If this goes life it is absolutely useless.

Re:Search for Linux

[Owndapan]

More importantly, a search for "Linux" results in the following titlebar (on Firefox):

"MSN Search: Linux -- More Useful Everyday"

Couldn't agree more ;)

Re:Search for Linux

[13Echo]

"linux.org" and "kernel.org" don't turn up either when you search for "Linux". Strange. In fact, I see no real method to its searching.

"gmail" and "Google Mail" don't take you to the root of the Gmail site, but lists a page that says "Google mail is evil" instead. Strange.

It really makes no sense. "Windows" and "Hotmail" take you to the proper pages. Why is there such a discrepancy in the searches?

Wow! Searching "windows vs linux" in Microsoft's new search engine gives more links that are favorable towards Linux, than the results through Google. It must be working after all!

Re:Search for Linux

[Nailer]

hmmm, it didnt seem to find any results for "microsoft sucks", despite the fact www.microsoftsucks.com exists...

It did for me

Re:Search for Linux

[skipscum]

A search for 'ms' finds nothing about Microsoft in the first 30 results. With Google, its the second result (first result if for a page is for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society).

Re:Search for Linux

[Bush Pig]

Yeah - I just did a comparison between this and Google, searching for "mud brick house". The Google search returned _only_ relevant hits on the first page, but with the ms search, only about the first half dozen were relevant. About half-way down the page, I got a winery called Brick House, whose page had something about mud on it. (I only bothered to look at the first page in each instance). I daresay any other search comparison will give similar results ...

Re:Search for Linux

[taernim]

Personally, I consider some of the directives coming out of MS to seem rather Elmer Fudd-ish...

Using that line of reasoning, you made a typo. Try searching for wabbit, perhaps... ;-)

Re:Search for Linux

[Yankovic]

I have to say, I know what they said the correct page is, but check this out:

MSN Search (regular - 18,445,615 results): Here

MSN Search (beta - no printed totals, but lots of linux sites... however no kernel.org, no redhat.com, no suse, etc): Here

Google Search (104,000,000 results): here

Maybe they should stick with what they have? The current results actually look great... just as good as google's first search page.

On a secondary note, does anyone find it funny that google returns 1e9 results? It's pretty stupid, since it's impossible to go past 1000... why not just say there are 600 billion, since you can never get there :)

Re:Search for Linux

[Yankovic]

Again, i'm going to have to point to their regular search page... do you think they've actually moved it over already?

Xfree86 at MSN.search: here

Looks pretty accurate to me

Re:Search for Linux

[OverflowingBitBucket]

Have you tried rebooting?
*ducks*

Re:Search for Linux

[Bob Davis, Retired]

Actually, when I just tried it the query "Microsoft sucks" turned up several pages of hits.

It ain't no panopticon though.

Re:Search for Linux

[jawahar]

Yeah, Search of the Microsoft, by the Microsoft, and for the Microsoft!

Re:Search for Linux

[Juln]

So, thats why they take code from freebsd at every opportunity?? Because it's easier to start a project yourself when you have so much money? You might THINK so, but no.

Re:Search for Linux

[interra]

something wrong on your side, because I get:

• www.redhat.com the first for "redhat".
• www.suse.com the first for "SUSE".
• and www.mandrakesoft.com/corporateclub goes second for "Mandrake".

Accuracy

[jmays]

What is important is that a search for litigious bastards still returns the SCO Group.

Re:Accuracy

[jintxo]

Damn it! That's the first thing I searched for too :-)

Re:Accuracy

[EdMack]

Doesn't that mean that the MSN engine can be google-bombed therefore they include some similar algorithms as google..

This seems to be a copy of google - no paid, stripped down pages, pageRank by links

Re:Accuracy

[ElliotLee]

Ha, and the URL is sco.com/?sco=litigious+bastards too.

"Miserable Failure"

[viper21]

Hey, at least microsoft did one thing right.

-S

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[strictnein]

with Jimmy Carter #4 and Michael Moore #3
Oh... and Hillary Clinton #5 and Howard Dean #7
And Michael Moore at #9 and #12
Rummy at #8
Slick Will at #14

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:"Miserable Failure"

[EvilTwinSkippy]

In Soviet Russia, Bush bashes YOU!

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[aengblom]

Hey, at least microsoft did one thing right [Search: Miserable + Failure].

Actually the best part is that the site now returns this:

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[kir]

No I won't. I did ten years.

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[meringuoid]

Looks like the right can't decide who they hate most... gotta love a split right-wing vote :-)

But what's the deal with this Counterstrike guy? This Gerhard Duesten fellow - why googlebomb him?

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[singleantler]

Not really, it's widely known that Google sees the number of links in to a site which are from sites that are highly linked to themselves, and there are lots of other guesses about what Google has as parts of their algorithm. What's secret is exactly what rating is given to each part of the page.

It seems pretty sensible that to beat Google they're first trying to imitate its' current methods as closely as possible, even if it's just to stop people switching away from MSN search when they realise Google can be their home page instead.

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[michajoe]

Yeah, but do you know they made sure they get it right?

1000 REM Ha! That'll show those search engine testers
1010 if query$ <> "miserable failure" then 1040
1020 title$(1) = "Biography of President George W. Bush"
1030 url$(1) = "http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html"
1040 REM That was easy, next one
1050 if query$ <> "litigious bastards" then 1080
1060 title$(1) = "The SCO Group"
[...]

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[Adripper]

and what did bush fail at as opposed to Carter and CLinton before him

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[BandwidthHog]

i can always be a road scholar like a former presient anyways.

Doubtful. On many levels.

Re:"Miserable Failure"

[BandwidthHog]

The good old "Weapons of Mass Destruction" search gives some interesting sponsored links, though.

xfree86

[SealTit]

Looks like it still thinks that xfree86 is "adult content"

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q =x free86&FORM=SMCRT

Re:xfree86

[Bricklets]

Looks like it still thinks that xfree86 is "adult content"

More importantly xfree85 is not considered "adult content." I can understand someone having trouble with "69," but "86"??? Come on. What position do two people have to be in to form that shape.

Re:xfree86

[Anonymous Coward]

given the new licensing agreement, many /.ers might tend to agree with Microsoft on this one.

Re:xfree86

[jred]

I can understand someone having trouble with "69," but "86"??? Come on. What position do two people have to be in to form that shape.

Well, first you have the chick facing away from you, standing on her head. Then you bring in the siamese twins...

Re:xfree86

[magarity]

Yet if you put xwindows and xfree86 in at the same time then it works. What about xfree86 by itself is adult content?

Re:xfree86

[th1nk]

Well, first you have the chick...

You apparently forgot where you are. You just lost 99.6% of your audience.

Re:xfree86

[prescot6]

What about xfree86 by itself is adult content?

It's a common mistake if you think about it. Let's say I'm browsing around left-handed (...). I go to delete my last search of "xxx" for something that incorporates "free" and "69". I don't hit backspace enough, miss the space bar, and hit the keys in the wrong order, but it's a reach to "9" with the left hand, so you might accidently hit "8". This has honestly never happened to you?

Re:xfree86

[Frizzle Fry]

Actually, this is how the windowing system orginally got its name.

Re:xfree86

[Murf_E]

its fixed now

Wonder if...

[bje2]

...they'll have a "Microooooooosoft" graphic at the bottom of the screen to allow you navigate between pages of results...

Re:Wonder if...

[Zorilla]

And directly to the right of the "Search" button will be a button that says, "I'm Feeling Retarded"

Re:Wonder if...

[troon]

Micro$$$$$$$$$$$soft.

Lameness filter workaround text goes here.

Re:Wonder if...

[paranoic]

they'll have a "Microooooooosoft" graphic at the bottom of the screen to allow you navigate between pages of results...

no that would be Micro$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$oft

Re:Wonder if...

[Epistax]

Close. It'll be Micro$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$oft.

Really close though.

Re:Wonder if...

[Cyram]

Actually it will be more like "Micro$$$$$$$$$oft"

Yeah, bad joke, I know...

First experience...

[SammysIsland]

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

Re:First experience...

[bje2]

i just got that too...was working fine a few mins ago...ha, microsoft has been /.'d...

Re:First experience...

[blinder]

A brand new algorithmic search engine -- built from the ground up -- on Microsoft technology

Yeah, no kidding.

Re:First experience...

[meitsjustme]

MISSING CONTROL: lwhead
MISSING CONTROL: lwbody

How unfortunate, /.'d in its infancy

Re:First experience...

[Bilbo]

> How unfortunate, /.'d in its infancy

So, what did you EXPECT?

Re:First experience...

[pommiekiwifruit]

Yup, me too! After thirty seconds it timed out.

Re:First experience...

[avij]

Of course, they use the Google API for searching the web and they just ran out of allowed queries per day when the site was /.ed. Isn't that obvious?

Re:First experience...

[bert.cl]

That'd better start searching ;) for a fix then. Or patch, or ...

Re:First experience...

[glassesmonkey]

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b14"

hmm... maybe the server can't handle the slashdot effect. What are they gonna do when Janet Jackson's breast pops out again?

Re:First experience...

[Dejohn]

Me too... several times in a row. Nice beta...

Re:First experience...

[SammysIsland]

If they ran out of allowed queries per day, then it wouldn't start working again until tomorrow.

Playing catch up

[Mz6]

I like it only for the simple reason that the website I co-Admin is ranked 2nd. And not only that, the site is listed serveral times on the first page. In Google, the first appearance doesn't show up until the 5th page. (Search term: Mazda6) But that would probably be the only reason why I like it.

Out of curiousity I also decided to check out MSN's Sandbox. This is pretty much their upcoming software and features. I was surprised to find pretty much everything they are listing has already been inplemented by Google. Time to play catch up!

NewsBot = news.google.com
MSN Toolbar = Google Toolbar
3 = I'm thinking this is just like Orkut, 3 is software that connects a small group of family and close friends, people who know and trust one another, so they can do fun things together in a whole new way. 3 is a beta test of an innovative application that lets users connect online, extending real-world social interactions.
NetScan = This is Google Groups.. searches USENET newsgroups

The only "original" item on there was TerraServer and that has been up and running for some time now.

I would be interested to see if MS decides to add much of the same features that Google has. Such as phone number searches, unit conversions, etc...Some things that make Google really unique. Perhaps MS could tie the search term, such as an address, to TerraServer will allow a person to get a direct overhead view of that place. However... They need to get some more updated maps to make this useful.

Re:Playing catch up

[strictnein]

3 [threedegrees.com] = I'm thinking this is just like Orkut

And quite possibly uses the same code...

Re:Playing catch up

[strictnein]

Very interesting: Drilling down using NetScan and you actually get a page that links to Google Groups.

MESSAGE HEADER

The message header for this article is not available.

MESSAGE BODY

The message body for this article is not available.

Message-ID: 409e3b22$0$29341$756600cd@news.cambrium.nl

Sear ch for this message at Google Groups

Kind of suprsising

Re:Playing catch up

[rentmej]

Isn't this what MS usually does? Build a product that is exactly like someone elses (or just steal it) and then let their lawyers have some fun.

If they have the balls to patent double clicking (with just a little prior art out there) I don't think they are going to be to worried about Google.

Re:Playing catch up

[Anonymous Writer]

And quite possibly uses the same code...

... with the same software errors

Re:Playing catch up

[Dennis Pallett]

Actually, 3degrees has been around a lot longer than Orkut, so that can't be a copy.

Re:Playing catch up

[MikeXpop]

Two quick things.

MSN News
Google News

Take a look at the left side. Look a little familiar? Besides the fact that the colors are on the other side, it's the same interface. And in the same space as well.

The other thing is, why is this only in the UK? Try going to newsbot.msn.com and look where it redirects to.

Re:Playing catch up

[poulbailey]

> NetScan = This is Google Groups.. searches USENET newsgroups

It's the same in that both deal with usenet, but that's about all they have in common.

NetScan is a data miner that lets you do some pretty advanced data manipulation and comparisons. Take a look at one of the reports it generates. It'll tell you how many regular posters a group has. It'll tell you how many posters only posted once in a given group. It'll even let you dig up lots and lots of scary data on a specific author!

Google can't do any of this.

Re:Playing catch up

[shyster]

If you look at the Netscan website, they have taken a different approach then Google's Groups. I remember seeing something similar on a news.microsoft.com reader some time ago. It actually performs some statistical analysis on the newsgroups, giving you stats on how many posts go unanswered, how many regulars there are, what percentage of posts are cross-posts, average line count, etc. That can help non-regulars of Usenet (like myself) quickly narrow down to some specific high-quality groups. There's even a "treemap" showing group activity.

Of course, I don't know how relevant this will all be to making Usenet accessible to more people...but I guess that's why it's called Research.

Newsbot also has some intersting twists compared to Google's News. It tries to be Tivo-like and recommend stories based on past clicks. It also gives a Most Popular ranking, which is interesting to see what people are reading.

I've never used 3 degrees or Orkut, so I won't comment on those. And everybody has a toolbar these days...I'm just surprised MSN's is still in beta. I half expect that it would install automatically when you visit msn.com.

Now, if they'd only learn the value of Google's so simple, yet so easy to use (and on the eyes) interface. And maybe move it out from the msn.com domain (which I always associate as AOL-wannabe) to microsoft.com...they just might have something here.

But I'm sure the accountants and marketing execs will screw it up before it ever launches.

Pretty comprehensive preview there, methinks

[GillBates0]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

a LITTLE slow???

[ErichTheWebGuy]

admits the fact that searching is a little slow

9:06:41 AM MDT: search for 'microsoft sucks'
9:07:38 AM MDT: returned first page of results, first result points to microsoftsucks.org

I think I'd call that more than a little slow. The term unusable comes to mind.

Re:a LITTLE slow???

[forevermore]

did my typical search for "1u server" (one of our company's target search phrases). Not only did it take 25 seconds to process the request. You're darn right it's unusable. Google comes back with the results faster than galeon can render the page.

Re:a LITTLE slow???

[Threni]

> The term unusable comes to mind.

The terms `preview` and `fucktard` come to mind.

test searches = bad

[jb.hl.com]

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=o verheating+graphics+card+tnt2&FORM=SMCRT

All irrelevant bollocks related to shopping and motherboards. If I wanted to get info on overheating graphics cards, I'd be fucked.

"Miserable failure" returns nothing.

Re:test searches = bad

[Joe U]

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=o verheating+graphics+card+tnt2&FORM=SMCRT

All irrelevant bollocks related to shopping and motherboards. If I wanted to get info on overheating graphics cards, I'd be fucked.

But if you wanted to buy an overheating graphics card, you could get a great deal.

"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...

Re:"fisherman"

[bje2]

i randomly searched for "baseball" on both... Microsoft's #1 results was the mlb.com website (which is what i would expect)... Google's #1 result was baseball-almanac.com doesn't really mean anything, just thought that was interesting...

Re:"fisherman"

[sould]

Okay, random test. Search for "fisherman":

Sorry, no results were found containing "fishermen"

C'mon...I mean copying and pasting isn't that hard now is it?

Re:"fisherman"

[plumby]

I did a search for cheesecake and got 0 entries. I tried a couple of minutes later and got loads. Evidently not very stable yet, but it is only in beta, so not too surprising. My guess would be incorrect use of a static/global variable.

Re:"fisherman"

[afabbro]

Okay, random test. Search for "fisherman":

Sorry, no results were found containing "fishermen"

1 billion entries? Please.

Next random test: learning how to copy and paste.

Re:"fisherman"

[L. VeGas]

My guess would be incorrect use of a static/global variable.

Much thanks! I've been trying for weeks to figure our what's wrong.
----------
Bill Gates

Re:"fisherman"

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Fishermen? I detect a troll here.

Re:"fisherman"

[mattgreen]

Or perhaps a misplaced semicolon thingy!

Re:"fisherman"

[Qzukk]

My guess would be someone behind the scenes reading your search and typing it in to google to have the list ready for the next time someone searches for it.

Re:"fisherman"

[SpootFinallyRegister]

that would never happen at microsoft.

its probably just a couple of gotos with the wrong labels.

Re:"fisherman"

[pipingguy]

My guess would be incorrect use of a static/global variable.

Bill will be dropping by soon to buy you out

Hint: when there's a knock at the door and you ask, "Who is it?", if the reply is, "Hired Goons", don't open the door.

Re:"fisherman"

[PorscheDriver]

search for "filthy porn"

No results?!??!!

w00t! The internet is clean and unsullied once more.

Re:"fisherman"

[entrager]

Actually, that happens with every search. First time, zero hits. Second time (if you do it again fast enough), error. Third time, tons of hits. It's running the search after letting you know that there aren't any hits, then it saves the results for the next person that does the same search. Try it with some odd search, like "stapled peanuts". I haven't searched for it yet, but I bet the first person that does will see 0 hits, and subsequent people will get plenty of hits.

Re:"fisherman"

[200_success]

I did a search for cheesecake and got 0 entries. I tried a couple of minutes later and got loads. Evidently not very stable yet, but it is only in beta, so not too surprising. My guess would be incorrect use of a static/global variable.

No, no! What happened is that they have a Windows server farm, and the machine holding the results for "cheesecake" had crashed just as you were doing your first search. You just had to wait a few minutes for that machine to come back online.

You need to work on your debugging skills. =P

Re:"fisherman"

[Owndapan]

I'm getting results returned for this now, as with a number of the other "no results" suggestions. Maybe the first search starts searching the index and subsequent searches use the results?

Re:"fisherman"

[Idarubicin]

randomly searched for "baseball" on both... Microsoft's #1 results was the mlb.com website (which is what i would expect)... Google's #1 result was baseball-almanac.com doesn't really mean anything, just thought that was interesting...

I suspect it means that Google's algorithm is better, still. The baseball almanac site has a tremendous quantity of baseball trivia, statistics, and anecdotes. Records on the site date back to the nineteenth century.

The Major League Baseball site (Google's second result, by the way) is certainly an important result, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the real baseball addicts found the almanac site more useful, and linked to it more often.

I note that Google (correctly) returns the Major League Baseball site as the first result for searches for 'major league baseball' or 'mlb'.

Incidentally, it seems that Microsoft is continuing to update their index and/or tweak their algorithm. The current top results are now to The Baseball Archive, Baseball Prospectus...and so forth. The Major League Baseball page is actually on the second page of hits, after a number of significantly less relevant results....

Of note--if you click on a result, you get bounced through msn.com servers first. I presume that they're using that information to refine their search algorithm.

Re:"fisherman"

[plumby]

No. Someone who's seen almost exactly the same behaviour in a website that he worked on, where "no records found" was for some reason a static flag, and if someone did a valid search at exactly the same time as someone who got no results, then they would get the "no results" message.

Not the only possible option, admittedly, but one that could be, and has been, a cause of this symptom.

Don't abuse what you don't understand.

And the most popular search is now...

[Mr. Smoove]

Linux just to p*ss off Bill, courtesy of all his friends at /.

Re:And the most popular search is now...

[Zabu]

Coporate monopoly. I have searched for it a few times, i guess they don't know what that is

Re:And the most popular search is now...

[aussie_a]

Coporate monopoly. I have searched for it a few times, i guess they don't know what that is

Yeah, fancy not knowing what a Coporate monopoly is. Those people at Microsoft sure are stupid.

Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[AKAImBatman]

function search(var terms)
{
return screen_scrap_google(terms);
}

On a more serious note, this engine is not all that great. For example, if I do a search for my name I primarily see forum posts. While that's great, it's not very useful. Listing software I've written, articles that mention me, etc. are far more useful results, especially to a future employer. Google nails this because the more interesting stuff always has back-links to it. Sorry Microsoft, you need Google's technology to compete with Google.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[DaHat]

Of course the engine is not that great! It's effectively a public beta test for people to use it and give feedback on what they think:
This site will be available for a short time. After we have time to incorporate your feedback and add some features it'll be back, new and improved

Give it a little time and then judge it as a finished product against other finished products, it's rather stupid to compare a work in progress to a complete product.

Sorry Microsoft, you need Google's technology to compete with Google.

By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[AKAImBatman]

Of course the engine is not that great! It's effectively a public beta test for people to use it and give feedback on what they think:

I think it needs to be rewritten from scratch around some inherent information principle, similar to what Google does. Instead it obviously just finds all results for a search term, then uses a lame rating algorithm that seems to weight semi-useful stuff like the domain name.

In other words, I think this "new" search engine is toast. In fact, it feels like Webcrawler from 7 years ago. How's that for feedback?

By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.

If Microsoft's technology was actually "better", then yes Linux would need to copy or license it. Thankfully, Microsoft's technology is not "better". For some reason that doesn't stop Linux supporters from copying Microsoft (GNOME, Mono, SAMBA, etc.). Go figure.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[AKAImBatman]

You're forgetting Hungarian Notation

Doh! You're right:

function arrSearch(var sTerms)
{
return arrScreen_scrap_google(sTerms);
}

Damn, it's hard to break years of *good* coding habits.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[Libor Vanek]

By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.

Something like Samba or Wine?

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[vk2]

By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.

And yes - samba(linux app not kernel) beat microsoft using their own technology - watch this space - more to come.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[JJahn]

Oops, thanks for pointing out the serious bug thats been "bugging" us for a few weeks now. We were getting Google's scraps before, instead of the scrape. Thats why the search results were all miserably irrelevant. I'll fix the bug right away. Thanks again, Bill Gates

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[Kazoo the Clown]

Sorry Microsoft, you need Google's technology to compete with Google.

That's what they said about the Mac when MSFT came out with Windows. It wasn't true then and it's not true now.

What they do need is a hook. With Windows/Mac it was price. With IE/Netscape it was an OS tie-in and web page generation software that crept in incompatibilities with Netscape. Not sure what the one here will be, but it's clear that MSFT has a long history of "competing" by tilting the playing field, which is interesting because it's a tacit admission that they do not consider themselves capable of competing on a level field.

Re:Shhh... secret Microsoft code!

[RedWizzard]

return screen_scrap_google(terms);

Actually the code you're after is:

return screen_scrape_google(terms);

Microsoft programmers: not so bright.

Their indexing is waaaay out of date

[Anonymous Coward]

Searched for my domain, found results pointing to web pages that I haven't had online since November of 2002.

Slow

[chrispl]

Hmmm seven comments and the search is already very very slow (16 seconds load time here). Is it possible that we can bring down MSN with slashdot?

Hint incase it goes down: Its a google clone.

it VORKS...

[dcordeiro]

Results 1-15 containing "litigious bastards" NEXT >>
1 -
The SCO Group, Inc. | SCO Grows Your Business
Home How To Buy Shop Worldwide SCO UnixWare 7.1.4 Promotional Small Business Edition Packed with Value For a limited time only, customers can license the new SCO UnixWare 7.1.4 Small ...
sco.com/?sco=litigious+bastards

Yep! Micro$oft alright

[Darkstar9969]

Disclaimer: I'm not an inherent MS basher....they just give us SOOO much fodder!!!

Search Error -- -- -- MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b13

Worse Results?

[AuSerpent]

I'm personally getting worse results from it than the current search engine on MSN.

I've done 3 searches this morning and both google and MSN search found what I needed from the first page of search results but this new one didn't for many pages back. I wasn't even trying to fool it.

From the blog of Ross Burton:

[BRSloth]

Microsoft have a technology preview of their new MSN search engine. The litmus test is, of course, searching for "ross burton".

The good news: top hit is the root of my blog. However, so are the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... In fact all but five of the results in the first five pages are from my site, and those others are all pages from the Burton (the snowboarding people) web site. Amusingly, they have shown me the index pages from every day I've blogged on.

Why not see for yourself how well Google searches for "Ross Burton", compared to Microsoft's new engine. Thank you Google for More results from www.burtonini.com!

Long Discussion

[TheUncleBob]

about the performance and quality of the results of the search preview over at Webmaster World, including some feedback from MS employees.

The last horse finally starts the race...

[spoonani]

This Dell DJ of search engines could be a testiment to the decline in convential search-engine revenue as a result of "the googleization" of dynamic content delivery systems. A move that will "cost microsoft tens of millions?" I like the creative spin, but I'm sure we can channel that energy elsewhere throughout redmond, and I'm sure they've run the numbers.

Re:The last horse finally starts the race...

[AKAImBatman]

The early 90's Apogee of search engines...

WTF are you talking about? Apogee ruled the early 90's! Duke Nukem (I&II), Commander Keen series, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Bionic Commando, Wacky Wheels, and the list goes on. Don't be diss'ing Apogee's best years! They are but a shell of what they once were.

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.

By "minimalist" they mean "thrown together"?

[bangular]

Looking at it, it's not minimalist in the same sense google is. Google has a lot of content that is extremely well organized without a lot of extra crud. Google's content is well formatted and easy to read. Simply taking out your ads and superfluous fonts and graphics doesn't make put in the same ranks as google.

Re:Technologies..

[Tobias Luetke]

relys on aspx ?

I think you are a bit confused. aspx means asp.net and thats purly serversided. You can't *rely heavily* on this, its a choice of system.
And a damn good one right now if i might add this. People who used it will agree with me there. ( asp was crap )

Boycott

[OYAHHH]

Anybody know what the search engine spider calls itself.

I make sure that msnbot is not allowed to traverse my web site via the robots.txt file. I'd like to do the same with this robot.

BTW, I've noticed no appreciable decline in web hits at all.

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?

Re:Boycott

[Issue9mm]

Maybe he just wants to keep the private parts of his site private, and allow the rest to be indexed?

It could be that he's got a private web community or message board, and doesn't want random people joining up?

-9mm-

Re:Boycott

[christopherfinke]

Why would you do something like this? There are going to be people that use Microsoft's search engine. Your site will not be indexed by Microsoft's search engine. Consequently, these people will not find your site.

I wonder if all of the people complaining about there not being enough relevant results are the same ones blocking this spider from indexing their relevant content...

Re:Boycott

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would you do something like this? There are going to be people that use Microsoft's search engine. Your site will not be indexed by Microsoft's search engine. Consequently, these people will not find your site.

Because Microsoft's webcrawlers are bandwidth hogs. I wasn't going to block msnbot, but then I realised it was sucking up over 10% of my monthly bandwidth allowance (okay, so I only have a gigabyte a month, but even so!). Compare that to Google, who barely figure on my logs, even though my site ranks pretty highly with the right search terms, and I think you'll see why people might be tempted to block MSN...

Re:Boycott

[christopherfinke]

Just like many companies don't want people who are too dense not to use Windows using their software?

Seriously though, are you kidding?

Re:Boycott

[DaHat]

If that was his concern then he'd be better off in blocking all bots from traversing certain folders rather then specific bots. It's more likely that he's just a Microsoft hating person who hates anything MS related and thinks that doing so would 'screw' them over the same way that he think using linux does... or mozilla or any other non Microsoft product.

Re:Boycott

[OYAHHH]

I,

Think you hit the nail on the head with the word "why".

What is the point of MS providing a search facility via their websites and eventually tied directly into their OS. So they can make more money. Yeah a secondary concern might be to help their customers have a better experience, but believe me, it's to make money.

Has MS been particularly honest about their search results in the past. I've done the "Linux" search on MSN before and quite frankly it was appalling to me that a company could be so blatent in their disregard for truthfullness.

Thus, "Why" should I provide any opportunity for MS to make any additional money. I certainly don't feel the need to line Bill Gates pockets anymore.

And, I certainly don't feel the need to give sustenance to someone who has made it their life's calling to squash anything that is non-MS.

Call me vindictive and I'll wear it like a crown if you like.

To me, collaborating with MS in any manner is sorta like having the person who shot and killed your mother over for dinner. Ain't gonna happen under my command.

By disallowing the msnbot I effectively, in a small way, reduce MS' ability to rule the world completely.

And as I noted in my first post, before I disallowed msnbot from my site I only got a few redirects off of MS sites daily anyway.

If somebody wants to find my site they can readily find me on any of the other search engines. My site's consistently in the top five returns for the pertinent subject matter on any search engine. Except MSN, of course, hee! hee! hee!

Re:Boycott

[DaHat]

It seems an earlier post of mine summed up what you said quite well.

Re:Boycott

[weeble]

I have mentioned elsewhere the the bot exhibits very rude behaviour pulling full copies of websites and killed my bandwidth until I firewalled their bot.

Re:Boycott

[gyratedotorg]

MSGoogle/1.0

Re:Boycott

[Jugalator]

Are you on crack??

This search engine will most likely be used in existing and coming versions of Internet Explorer. You know, the one 90%+ of the population seem to use.

But go ahead and block the spider so your site won't be listed, it's of course your choice. :-S

If I'd want to boycott it for some childish reason, I'd just not visit their site.

Re:Boycott

[tcdk]

Not sure what the robot identifies it self as (take a look at your log, I don't care enough to do it), but I've been visisted by msnbot64042.search.msn.com and msnbot64043.search.msn.com for a total of 12500 page hits in june (drawing 230MB of bandwidth). Googlebot did just over 10000 page hits and 233MB, in the same period... (number 3 is Inktomi Slurp with 2000 hits and 9MB...)

It's the price you pay for visitors. Google is, with a wide margin, the bigget referer to my site and if MSN/newSearch can deliver as many visitors as google for the bandwidth they "take" when they spider me, I sure as hell aren't going shut them off...

Re:Boycott

[Lobo93]

...why?

Oh, I don't know...maybe it has to do with something quite rare these days:

principle
n 1: a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can
be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; "their
principles of composition characterized all their works"
[syn: rule]
2: a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of
principle"; "he will not violate his principles"
3: a basic truth or law or assumption; "the principles of
democracy"
4: a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the
function of a complex system; "the principle of the
conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion";
"the right-hand rule for inductive fields" [syn: rule]
5: rule of personal conduct [syn: precept]
6: (law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially
an explanation of the working of some device in terms of
laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment";
"the principles of internal-combustion engines" [syn: rationale]

But I can very well assert to the fact that it is hard to discern between principles in a practical fashion and ye good ole' fanatism; principles per se is often hard to live by and these days more or less trivialized, but to paraphrase Frost: "that make all the difference".

So be a good sport: go piss on a Micro-Soft sales rep., and reap dividends in your conscience and hence inure the most important thing in a person, namely pride.

Re:Boycott

[metamatic]

It doesn't matter to me if Microsoft supporters can't find my web site, so I'm not "hurt".

I wouldn't want to be indexed in their search engine because it increases their credibility.

Re:Boycott

[JebuZ]

It seems to identify itself as this:
"msnbot/0.11 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"
I imagine it's the same crawler used by the regular MSN search engine.

Re:Boycott

[telstar]

"What is the point of MS providing a search facility via their websites and eventually tied directly into their OS. So they can make more money. Yeah a secondary concern might be to help their customers have a better experience, but believe me, it's to make money."

• yeah ... 'cause Google is doing everything in their power to go into bankruptcy

Re:Boycott

[bitspotter]

There is a report that says the MS spider is NOT honoring robots.txt files according to spec. This guy had a backup server, but all we all so lucky?

Re:Boycott

[harborpirate]

Zealotry is ugly in any form. Lets change just a few words in the parent post and see what it looks like.

I,

Think you hit the nail on the head with the word "why".

What is the point of [US] providing a [democracy] via their [military] and eventually tied directly into their [government]. So they can make more money. Yeah a secondary concern might be to help [Iraqis] have a better experience, but believe me, it's to make money.

Has [US] been particularly honest about their [attacks] in the past. I've done the [US] [information] on [Al Jezeera] before and quite frankly it was appalling to me that a [country] could be so blatent in their disregard for truthfullness.

Thus, "Why" should I provide any opportunity for [US] to make any additional money. I certainly don't feel the need to line [George Bushs] pockets anymore.

And, I certainly don't feel the need to give sustenance to someone who has made it their life's calling to squash anything that is non-[American].

Call me vindictive and I'll wear it like a crown if you like.

To me, collaborating with [America] in any manner is sorta like having the person who shot and killed your mother over for dinner. Ain't gonna happen under my command.

By [attacking] the [innocent civilians] I effectively, in a small way, reduce [US]' ability to rule the world completely.

And as I noted in my first post, before I [attacked] [innocent civilians] [in the US] I only got a few [care packages] off of [US] [charities] daily anyway.

If somebody wants to find my [terror cell] they can readily find me [in] any of the other [terror countries]. My [terror cell]'s consistently in the top five [homicide bombers] for the [world] on any [list]. [Especially] [US], of course, hee! hee! hee!

Don't stop at the top.

Obviously battling a search engine with code and battling foreign country with RPGs are quite different. But what I wanted to point out is that by changing a few words, and a couple phrases, this thing looks like a terrorist manifesto. Zealotry sucks. It blinds people with hate and fear.

You can be passionate without being a zealot. I don't think there is a need to "deny all things MS", just because they're MS. Lets be passionate, but thoughtful. Lets evaluate different options with an open mind. Because its stuff like this that makes people think that DOS attacks on MS servers (or killing innocent civilians) does anyone, anywhere any good at all.

That is all.

Thank you.

Re:Boycott

[lucas teh geek]

I wish I had mod points, that was brilliantly done. not sure what I would mod it up as, but I'd definately hope a few more people read that

Re:Boycott

[wfberg]

Why prevent a spider from crawling your page?

Just because it's associated with Microsoft?

Perhaps he doesn't feel the need to be indexed in the MSN seach function. Spiders and visitors cost bandwidth, and if your target audience is very different from your average MSN search user (*cough* <aol>me too</aol>) then it couldn't hurt either websurfers or the webmaster to block it, right?

Re:Boycott

[BandwidthHog]

The only problem I have with that (other than the brackets making it kinda jarring to read) is that it confuses active attacks with passive disengagement. I myself boycott The Great Wal Mart. That doesn't mean I hurl explosives at their customers or employees, just that I personally refuse to put my money in their cash registers.

While I agree that the parent poster might be going a tad farther than most here may see as reasonable, as one of the few remaining slashbots who can claim never to have put a penny in Microsoft's cash registers in any way, shape or form, I definitely understand his motivations (that email address above this post is valid, ya know).

Re:Boycott

[RedBear]

Hi, I'm responding to inform you that you are misspelling my name. It's Kristopher Finkenbinder, not Christopher Finke. ;)

Yahoo's preview

[barcodez]

Just to balance things... http://labs.yahoo.com/demo/nutch/

Search Error.. Slashdotted?

[Ba3r]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b14

slow

[Anonymous Coward]

It took nearly 30 seconds to return results for "gates balmer anal".

Biased

[mogrinz]

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

Re:Biased

[bairy]

Yeah but if you search for "images" in google, the second result is google images.

It's probably as much just what the server finds first as it is swaying the results

Yea, a billion sites...

[slashrogue]

Sorry, no results were found containing "microsoft fud"

Re:Yea, a billion sites...

[Xenographic]

You know, search engines filter out the really common words from your searches unless you force them not to... :]

Where Am I?

[enforcer999]

It is not only slow, it does not have me! I am going back to google.

Re:Technologies..

[DaHat]

Why?

One is entirely server side and is transparent to the client other then the extension in the address bar. The other is a widely supported technology that's well supported on almost every platform with a recent web browser.

Slashdotted already

[Genevish]

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

If it's like everything else M$ does...

[Wizzy Wig]

it probably won't work with non-M$ browsers.

Same algorithm

[baywulf]

Would this imply that Microsoft is using the same algorithm as Google?

Re:Same algorithm

[ArsenneLupin]

Would this imply that Microsoft is using the same algorithm as Google?

In order to be sure, you need to test it with evil monopolistic empire...

Re:Same algorithm

[catch23]

no, because google actually works and this one doesn't? just read the comments from other people. If they used google's code, we might actually have something to talk about. The search engine displayed here is worst than Altavista when it first came out.

One thing's for sure...

[artemis67]

they don't seem to be standing up to the slashdotting their receiving right now.

litigious bastards

[Barsema]

At least they got litigious bastards right

Google & Yahoo are quaking in their boots...

[retsamxaw]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

Over Abundance of Vendor Sites

[dykofone]

The problem that's developed with google is searching for any consumer electronic brings up a ridiculous number of small vendors trying to sell that product, often times even outranking the products official site. Microsoft's new engine seems to be even more prone to this, just try searching for a Sony Digicam (as soon as it begins working again...)

My expericence:

[protomala]

First try searching for upperland:

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b14

The second search worked, but google already know me and place my page called upperland on first, and plus have options to search only brazilian or portuguese pages.

The problem was when I tryied searching for "sport club internacional" that gave me a: Sorry, no results were found containing "sport club internacional". It's the name of my soccer team in brazil.
Google found lots of pages, even american/international sites citing it. Very bad result here for msn experimental search.

Only 15 rsults for Linux

[Foofoobar]

Gee, one billion pages and only 15 results for Linux? Why am I not surprised?

Re:Only 15 rsults for Linux

[Foofoobar]

Oooh a flame from a Windows coward. Did you type that yourself or did you get your GUI to do it for you?

Re:Only 15 rsults for Linux

[RyLaN]

Gee, one billion pages and only 15 results for Linux? Why am I not surprised?

Actually, that'd be only 15 results per page. If you went and hit the "NEXT>>" button, you'd get 16-30.. Just remember this the next time you flame someone for not understanding a UI. :-)

Re:Only 15 rsults for Linux

[dAzED1]

at the moment, I get zero results for "Linux." However, I searched for "Microsoft," clicked next, and then it told me it couldn't find Microsoft. Seems like the "next" button isn't working right...at the moment.

Not that anyone expects stable, consistent results from a MS product... ;) Sorry, had to say it.

Missing Elementary Stuff

[kingbyu]

This engine has a long ways to go, but is fairly updated. I did a search for the BYU Ham Radio Club. Google only started returning the proper site as a result about a week or two ago. This MSN engine seemed to have scanned the whole site and was very good about returning the correct site. The problem is, that it returned too much of the site. The whole first page of the search results contained different pages from the site. I thought it was pretty elementary to make sure that search results only returned the most relevant page or two from a particular site. Who knows how many intel.com results it might give me if I searched for "intel pentium" Its a good thing that the search "feature" in windows does blow like this search engine. Oh, wait..... doh!

Search for linux

[glass_window]

of course was the first thing I did. came up with the following:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Works really well

[mcgroarty]

My first search on http://www.search.msn.com/ was "Google rip off" and it worked pretty well.

Try it! The best result is in the blue box at the top!

Re:Works really well

[aussie_a]

Wrong website: http://techpreview.search.msn.com

this is no good

[Titchener]

I searched for "Microsoft sucks" and didn't find anything. Are you telling me that no where in the entire crawlable internet do those two words co-occur? I'll stick with google. At least a search for Google sucks turns something up.

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?

Re:hmm...

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I hear that.

Next we will be hearing about how Solitaire is proof of Microsofts market penetration into gaming.

Re:hmm...

[knodi]

Sure, there's another source. They also get a lot from people logging out of hotmail. :-)

Re:hmm...

[wfberg]

Actually, I get msn.com.sg ;-)

MSN messenger is also a source. Zillions of free ads (for MS) promising sordid details on celebrity sex life, that end up being disappointingly bland.

to answer their question

[CoffeeJedi]

What do we have under the hood? A brand new algorithmic search engine -- built from the ground up -- on Microsoft technology. Give it a spin and tell us what you think.

This site will be available for a short time. After we have time to incorporate your feedback and add some features it'll be back, new and improved.

what do i think? i think you should stop having the marketing-drones right your copy, when Google says things like "give it a spin" or "it'll be back", it seems genuine, when Microsoft says it, it sounds forced and derivative of the original

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:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[presarioD]

The only way that MS can convince me using their search engine is if they donate money for each search that I make to some NGO fighting hunger or cancer or social injustice or...

Let the charity wars commence!
(If you can't beat them appeal to their good hearts!)

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[AliasTheRoot]

Netscape didn't become a verb. Google did. You can't redefine verbs with dollars.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[robertjw]

Look at x-box. They are giving the things away but still haven't been able to erode Sony's market share.

IE bypassed Netscape because Microsoft was able to bundle it into the OS. Over the course of just a few years, most consumers purchased a new computer, with an updated OS that included IE. Netscape couldn't compete with that.

I bet the next IE service pack sets the home page to the Microsoft Search.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[One Louder]

They'll win because they'll integrate their search engine into every aspect of Windows and other MS products - IE, Office, the file explorer, Windows Media, etc. To use Google, you'll have to launch IE, and it will only work from there, not other applications.

The real tragedy is that people will use the MSN search, but still call it "googling" - as you said, it's become a generic term.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[glinden]

I don't think it's true that "Google won the mindshare a long time ago." As of Jan 2004, Google has less than 40% of the search market, nearly tied with MSN and Yahoo.

Unfortunately, all Microsoft has to do is to catch Google. If the quality is essentially indistinguishable from Google, most people will use MSN Search, since MSN Search will be the default in IE (and probably MS OFfice and WinXP soon).

As long as Google keeps innovating and stays ahead, they'll do fine. But, if they trip, Microsoft will catch up and trample over them, just like they did to Netscape.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[Cro Magnon]

AFAIK, nobody on "Buffy" ever mentioned Netscape. They DID mention Google!

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[metamatic]

Used to be everyone used Altavista to search, and everyone on the web had heard of it.

Who uses Altavista now?

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[Milo77]

They do have something special up their sleeves. The next version of their OS is going to be massively integrated with search capabilities. Like Dashboard, they'll be watching your every move and displaying search results that they believe pertain to your current task. Imagine a search box on the task bar - the average user will never go back to google as long as their search tech is halfway decent...

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[GiSqOd]

And let's face it, Google won the mindshare a long time ago.

While I and (probably) most others at /. agree wholeheartedly with this assessment, not everyone else in the real world agrees. Important example...

I have friends doing investment banking at places like Merril Lynch -- they're ALL trying to pick the winner of the new search technology battle. Apparently, senior market analysts only really see three contenders for the throne. Here's the battle as they see it:

* Yahoo!: Best name brand recognition. Most additional services. They've acquired promising new search technology (Overture, I think it's called?).

* MSN: Direct quote from analyst: "Microsoft always puts something competitive in the marketplace." Lots of capital to back up R&D. Generally accepted wisdom that MS realizes that they're behind schedule on conquering the internet, so they're going to push extra-super-double hard to make their search tech great.

* Google: Sure, best tech right now, but (again, direct quote) "They seem like a good aquisition target in 5 years." Some feelings that the IPO may be overhyped on Wall Street, and that it may hurt Google more than it helps.

The crucial point is that many of these powerful, intelligent people are betting against Google in the long-term battle. While you and I may think their reasons are total hogwash (Yahoo may have the most additional services, but Google's are universally better, etc.), these people are planning on throwing lots of investment money at Yahoo! and MS. Does more money = Better search tech? In the long run, maybe. Summary: Google might lose because "conventional wisdom" may be sending money to their competitors.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[StraightTalkExpress]

They'll win because they'll integrate their search engine into every aspect of Windows and other MS products - IE, Office, the file explorer, Windows Media, etc. To use Google, you'll have to launch IE, and it will only work from there, not other applications.

Bundling really doesn't buy them all that much here. Tying it into Office and Media Player are bells and whistles - they'll get some hits off it, I'm sure, but it's not a significant share of all the searching that people will do.

Netscape lost to bundling because it's a PITA to download a whole application - especially one as large as late netscape versions over 1990's bandwidth. Going to a website, by contrast, takes very little effort.

Re:Microsoft's gonna lose this one

[StraightTalkExpress]

As of Jan 2004, Google has less than 40% of the search market, nearly tied with MSN and Yahoo.

From your link:

The audience reach chart above reflects unique visits to the various search engines, not the overall volume of search activity. For example, a person might visit Yahoo only once in a given month and would be counted toward Yahoo's share. The same person might also visit Google every day in the same month and conduct several searches per day at Google. Despite this, the person would still count only once in the Google figure above, which shows the percent of "unique visitors" in a given month that came to the site.

Search volume is important. Rates of growth are important. That site does not take them into account.

aww, my favorite search failed...

[stuph]

Sorry, no results were found containing "donkey punch"

Horrible Failure

[Bonker]

I searched for "Horrible Failure" at MSN and got:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

I seached for "Horrible Failure" at google and got:

Re: horrible failure to compile on Solaris 2.6
Russell Kroll
Wed, 18 Jul 2001 15:51:02 -0500

Koos van den Hout wrote:

> I am trying to build nut for our solaris 2.6 setup (so we can really start
> using a bigass APC ups with max 50 amps output current). For some reason
> apc does not deliver network-aware software with such a beast.
[...]
> "../include/common.h", line 89: warning: dubious tag declaration: struct termios
> "common.c", line 441: warning: dubious tag declaration: struct termios
> "common.c", line 442: identifier redeclared: cfmakeraw

I'm guessing from the directory names that you're trying to build 0.45.0
here. There's a patch that went into 0.45.1-pre2 that fixed a
few termios.h problems. Try it and see what happens.

All: when this sort of stuff happens, try the latest development
version. Normal releases are sometimes 3-4 months apart, and sometimes
the bug you are reporting has already been fixed in the -pre series.

Re:Horrible Failure

[Soul-Burn666]

please try "miserable failure"
It works both on google AND on this joke msn thingy...

Slashdot tested...

[Pirogoeth]

No wonder it's slow...

I also searched for "geocaching" and got back a single result: the gc.com homepage. Funny, I'm pretty sure there are a few more geocaching sites out there.

First impressions

[aldoman]

It's really slow. It's probably because of the SlashDotting but I think they are going to hit major problems scaling ASP.net and IIS to the size of Google (100k servers).

The results themselves are quite good, actually. I'm not sure what is going on with 'Linux' etc but they are far better than the current search MSN site that I am pained to see when 'new users' press the search button on IE.

What's the search bot's name?

[fiori]

I'll deny it access to my site. If it pays attention to the robots.txt file, let's just starve it of information for its database.

Re:What's the search bot's name?

[voxra]

I have a few PostNuke sites with PostCalendar and noticed this bot a couple of months ago. It was responsible for some 99% of the traffic to these sites following all links for all dates in the calendars every few seconds.

Put this in your robots.txt:

User-agent: msnbot
Disallow: /

Randi A.

Something I wish Google had

[KuNgFo0]

I really like how each result found has a button to quickly/easily provide feedback about it.

Feedback:

• Is exactly what I was looking for
• Has nothing to do with my search
• Shows inappropriate content (e.g., adult site)
• Shows illegal content
• Is not fresh (information is out-of-date)
• Is spam or junk
• Contains a dead link (title link does not lead to a page or site)
• Is missing a description or the description is too short
• Has a description that doesn't match page content
• Other

and
If you expected a specific website in the search results but it wasn't there, enter the web address (URL) here:

Google's version of such a thing (like yahoo's) is just a comment box that gives you the feeling that nobody really ever reads. This looks like something a script could handle/automate and actually do something about.
Of course it would have to be intelligent enough to wait for a significant about of 'feedback' from a variety of IPs to avoid companies trying to harm the rank of their competitors.

No surprises here.

[tsukasa137]

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.


Yep.
Definitely a Microsoft innovation.

Very biased...

[LuckyStarr]

I searched for "wheel mouse" and got a microsoft.com advertisment page for their hardware. On google I get Colas Nahaboo X mouse wheel scroll page. :)

I searched for "postfix policy" to get a description on the postfix policy framework and I got:

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

One billion pages?

[CrashRoX]

Well they missed two major keywords. I got zero responses for "books" and one responce for "cars". Which mind you was MSN auto. Microsoft you have a LONG ways to go. GOOGLE lives on.

Next thing you know....

[garfield1979]

.... Microsoft will be going on "tour" to say how much better their search engine is compared to google.

xfree86 is still porn

[starnix]

XFREE86 is still considered porn by microsoft apparently.

Hmmm

[christurkel]

It is slow but also when it finished searches it doesn't tell you how many pages it found.

not impressed

[LMCBoy]

I searched for my program, "kstars". It found several copies of our handbook, some Wiki entries, and our page on downloading from CVS (on the third page of results). But our homepage was not returned.

They aren't kidding when they say it's slow either. Maybe they should use a beowulf cluster of IIS servers! Imagine that...

hmmm

[jford235]

The 1st time I searched for "switching to linux", it didn't turn anything up. And every couple of searchs times it times out of dosen't find anything. and its really slow. Im sure they are really gonna win over alot of people with a search like this.

"Windows detected that you just entered..

[BigGerman]

.. a search term. Please reboot to see your results."

I tried searcing for C# and ...

[aml666]

It returned EVERYTHING with a C C++ C# C. .C .... you get the picture.

Google returns results for C# as typed. I would think Microsoft may want to fix this one.

Sorry, no results were found containing "gmail"

[JasonBigham]

One billion web pages searched...

one billion MICROSOFT and MICROSOFT partner web pages searched maybe.

Re:Sorry, no results were found containing "gmail"

[gmuslera]

Page 1 content: "This is page 1"
Page 2 content: "This is page 2"
. . .
Page 1 billon content: "This is page 1 billon"

Thats it, that the billon pages they have indexed

Slashdot

[Salamander]

Sorry, your request could not be processed at this time. Please try again in a few minutes.

I think I'll stick with Google, thanks.

Out of one billion pages....

[harks]

Sorry, no results were found containing "skydiving"

Re:Out of one billion pages....

[kamsin]

Try "Skydiving" instead... for whatever reason, all of the words it fails to find mysteriously work when capitalized. Even when they are not capitalized in the page. Go figure.

You never see THIS in Google

[deltwalrus]

Browser wars my arse:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Calling this a "browser war" is tantamount to Trinidad & Tobago declaring war against the U.S.

quick comparison to google

[pohl]

The query "windows sucks" in Google:

Results 1 - 10 of about 577,000 for windows sucks. (0.26 seconds)

...and in MSN Search preview...

Sorry, no results were found containing "windows sucks" Can they really claim to have indexed so many pages? :-)

like shooting fish in a barrel.

[millia]

from the page:
-Sorry, no results were found containing "unix"-

Re:Search for Linux...what Linux?

[The Chaotician]

When I searched for "linux" all I got was:

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

Conspiracy or buggy? With MS there's really no way to tell.

slashdotted already

[ShaggusMacHaggis]

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

WTF?

[craigmarshall]

Bwaaahaaaaahaaaa! I'm laughing all the way back to google, check this screenshot out (Don't want them getting slashdotted, do we?):

http://www.craigmarshall.org/screenshot.jpg

Re:WTF?

[craigmarshall]

Sorry:

http://www.craigmarshall.org/screenshot.jpg

Re:WTF?

[polyp2000]

from their blurb ...

if you notice problems, please tell us what went wrong.

1 Billion Webpages?

[karniv0re]

I dunno about 1 Billion...

Results 1-1 containing "php"

1. PHP Hypertext Preprocessor Learn about of a server-side, open source programming language. Find support information, links, events and release news. www.php.net

Did you find what you were looking for? Send us Feedback!

MSN Bots = Annoying

[Bruha]

I'm getting more hits than most of my regular visitors in my logs.. even google does not check my site on a daily basis but these seem to do it on a semi hourly basis.

Re:MSN Bots = Annoying

[underpar]

For a while I was wondering if maybe the poor little MSN bot on my site was lost or something. It stayed for hours, but MSN still has a month old version of my site cached. Google bots are sooo much smarter.

Re:MSN Bots = Annoying

[cdc179]

And the MSN Bots ignore robots.txt. This is down right unethical...Oh waith a min, standard operating procedures for M$ (micro blow)!

Re:MSN Bots = Annoying

[mikeboone]

I think the MSNBOT does obey robots.txt. I blogged back in mid June about rejecting MSNBOT, since it was sucking my bandwidth. 22,360 hits in half a month, using nearly 50MB. Google, on the other hand, hit 3600 pages for less than 13MB.

I set the robots.txt rejection on June 13th and my last hit from MSNBOT was on June 14th, so I think it's obeying the instruction.

Re:MSN Bots = Annoying

[mikeboone]

Oh, I meant to write that the 3600 GoogleBot hits were for all of June, not half like the MSNBOT.

Searching for...

[I_am_Rambi]

Gentoo - no results

Redhat - 1 result redhat.com

Suse many results

slackware - many results

mandrake - mandrake.com 4th on list

XFree86 - adult content

Xfree - no results

linux - no results

Seems rigged to me

Re:Searching for...

[meringuoid]

Gentoo: lots of results, many of which are to different pages on gentoo.org. What's the problem?

Unless you want to know about Gentoo penguins, as opposed to the DIY Linux distro, of course.

Re:Searching for...

[Mr_Silver]

Gentoo [msn.com] - no results
Redhat [msn.com] - 1 result redhat.com
Suse [msn.com] many results
slackware [msn.com] - many results
mandrake [msn.com] - mandrake.com 4th on list
XFree86 [msn.com] - adult content
Xfree [msn.com] - no results
linux [msn.com] - no results

Seems rigged to me

Never attribute to malace what could be equally explained by stupidity.

It is only beta after all. If the results are the same when it goes life then I would be suspicious.

ps. My search for "linux" gets more than none, although it does seem to have too much bias towards domain names that contain that term.

Re:Searching for...

[imr]

what's different from google here that i found from your test.
Clicking on your link for mandrake returned it 3rd place. So i moved the mouse over their link for it and it is a link that goes through their site before reaching mandrake.
(their link to mandrake: g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://www.mandrakestore.com/&&DI= 3865&IG=0ef1b8417967497d823f4a602109a77f&POS=3&CM= WDU&CE=3 )
So they probably are modifying their results and ranks based on clicks of the visitors

Re:Searching for...

[__aafutm5472]

Here's a good one.

Search for 'hieroglyphics'

Several (several!) pages of a record label. The first 134 results were all at hieroglyphics.com. It wasn't until the 135th entry that we had something about a several thousand year old dead language.

WTF? Why do we need so many results that all point to different pages at hieroglyphics.com? How about a couple, and a link that says 'More rsults from hieroglyphics.com'.

Oh wait, that'd be Google.

Re:Searching for...

[djlicata]

Could be a legitimate glitch, but searching for "redmond software monopoly" yields:

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b16"

Google returns 21,100 results.

Congradulations /.!

[quantaman]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:651496928 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b15

We've /.ed Microsoft!
YIPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How

[fghdsfkls]

many clueless numpty's can I get to reply to a post with subject '.' and content '.'. I reckon 15.

Got a long way to go, Bill...

[the_rajah]

I webmaster a site that's been online since 1995 for a health issue. We rank #2 for our search term on google and have consistantly for a couple of years. We get roughly a million page hits a month and I can't find it in the first two pages on MSN. I also get more error messages than results. Pre-alpha testing, IMO. Go back to the lab. Oh, is it because we're on a Linux server?

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

That won't help you

[mr_rangr]

You'll be preventing people who will rely solely on that search site from finding your own site. It's like blocking IE users from visiting your site. They'll just go somewhere else.

I feel less popular all of a sudden...

[chris_mahan]

MSN Search
Results 1-15 containing "christopher mahan"

google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 48,500 for christopher mahan. (0.18 seconds)

Linux?

[krs-one]

LINUX

'Nuff said.

-Vic

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!

Re:Technologies..

[jkabbe]

It's too bad that Firefox on Windows and Safari both seem to handle aspx incorrectly sometimes. A friend sent me a link to the Star Wars DVD page on Amazon. Clicking on the .aspx link to the trailer makes both of the above browsers want to download a file. Not what they had in mind I think....

Let's at least be consistent

[daves]

...Microsoft is offering...
...Microsoft claims...
...Microsoft are to improve...

All written by the same person. A corporation is a logical, singular entity.

What the hell..

[Bruha]

Sorry, no results were found containing "Linux
Sorry, no results were found containing "Linux News"

Some search engine.

Pretty Impressive...

[pdaoust007]

IS the search engine slashdotted?

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

next version

[dekeji]

Microsoft claims over one billion web pages searched, but admits the fact that searching is a little slow.

That's OK: once they copy Google's distributed computing technology and put it all on top of Linux, it will then be fast.

MS Search, Google... Head to head.

[kkovach24]

I just did a quick comparison and here are my results.

I search for "pumpkins" on both http://techpreview.search.msn.com/ and http://www.google.com/

From Google I recieved 1,060,000 results in 0.52 seconds. From Microsoft I recieved one result ("MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes.") which took about 2 1/2 minutes.

- Kevin

The site seems a bit slow...

[Fizzl]

So here's a fully functional mirror!

search for search

[brikenbri]

think this might be a problem? it can't even return itself.

Sorry, no results were found containing "search technology" SEARCH TIPS 1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly? 2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie". 3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Actually....

[karniv0re]

A search for MS isn't much better:

Results 1-15 containing "microsoft"

And that took quite a while.

Google search:

Results 1 - 10 of about 102,000,000 for microsoft [definition]. (0.09 seconds)

Nice try, MS. Oh, and by the way, we never said you had to scrap ads entirely. I don't mind Google's adds at all. They're relevant and unobtrusive. But you know, those who can't innovate, immitate.

Sorry

[pubjames]

Sorry, no results were found containing "blue screen of death"

Monty Python is very angry...

[JAgostoni]

They don't even have search results for:
"what is the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

Geeze ... even Google does ...

MSN Bot Inefficiency

[Anonymous Coward]

MSN Bot is highly inefficient at indexing large dynamic sites.

One of my sites is a dense, heavily cross-linked statistics search engine. Over the last few months I've noticed MSN Bot making a spirited attempt to pull the entire site. Since the number of unique pages (without a custom search) exceeds 100,000 it was generating enormous amounts of traffic until I banned it a few days ago.

Considering that the site gets very little user traffic and many of its pages are similar, I wouldn't expect anything like the level of effort expended by MSN Bot. By comparison, Google only indexes the first few pages.

tried to search for 'linux'

[goonda]

And this is what I got:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Ouchie

[bbzzdd]

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b14

Half-assed? Not yet -

[paiute]

They'll have to work some overtime to bring it up to half-assed.

Search for "Linus": Sorry, no results were found containing "Linus"

Google for "Linus": 2,370,00 hits.

Hey, if I were Gates, I'd just have IE block Google. What could happen? A lawsuit? (cue hysterical laughter)

Looks to me like it sucks

[bahamat]

My website http://digitalelf.net comes up in the top 5 in Google if you search for "digital elf". It was number 1 until the Digital Elph camera came out and became popular. MSN's search finds exactly zero pages for "digital elf" or "digital elph". I then searched for "debian linux" and got a message saying "your request could not be fulfilled".

Aparently this is not a search engine preview, it's a what-a-search-engine-might-look-like-but-only-in-a ppearance preview. Unfortunately it looks hiddeous.

I tried a different tactic..

[radish]

It asked what I was looking for, but wasn't able to help:

Sorry, no results were found containing "something better than windows"

Re:I tried a different tactic..

[RedBear]

It's very interesting that I can now (3:30pm AK time, July 1) search for:

microsoft
microsoft sucks
cat
rabbit
linux
"something better than windows" ... and get plenty of hits for each. (Reference posts above this where people were saying that they got zero or just a couple of results for those same searches.) Except for the long phrase in quotes, there seem to be plenty of results. I got tired of clicking "Next >>" to see more results. They don't give a total so it still can't be directly compared to Google's results, but it looks like there is some sort of algorithm behind the scenes that's populating the search results more completely over time as it analyzes what people are searching for. Kind of interesting.

Also interesting is that most of the search results appear to be very relevant at this point in time, even when using a single search term. All the search results for "cat" that I looked at seemed to actually be about cats, not just containing the letters c-a-t. This new search engine may not be anything to sneer at. After we get over all the self-congratulating knee-jerk reactions, that is. I'm sure it will have its flaws, but at the moment it's looking much better than initial impressions on this site would suggest.

Re:Search for Whatever

[denthijs]

Owww, Now i get it, ..
Microsoft doesn't want to be incompliant with all the rfc's
they just can't find 'm;
Sorry, no results were found containing "http rfc"

Explains a LOT

"search error .. try in a few minutes"

[peter303]

If I waited more than 5 seconds for a search engine to respond, I'd flee it like the plague. Google has no fear. I might consider shorting MSFT.

they need to stop. just stop

[scaaven]

I don't care if it is being /.'ed, it's still slow as Bush. Also seems like there's not alot going on under the hood (hey,also like bush). but seriously.

MS has alot of really dumb execs who get their panties in a wad if they don't feel they're "on top." All this search engine can do is hurt them. Time and money will be wasted in a cheap imitation of google that nobody will use except the newbies who can't change the default page of IE. and why? because their egos are as bloated as their software.

Flakey

[danharan]

Maybe it's just us slashdotting MSN, but I searched for "Greeting card", "Greeting cards", my name (firstName+lastName; lastName), and got nothing at all on the first several tries. I managed to get results once, then an error message. Oops, did I do that?

It did however find google, so it can't be that bad.

Exact matches

[v_1matst]

It looks like if the engine finds an exact match for what you searched for (try looking for "American Mathematical Society" on both google and MSN) it returns only that one result.

Anyone else noticing this?

How about anything anit-Microsoft

[swirvbox]

I got the following:

Sorry, no results were found containing "anti-microsoft"

And more amusing results:

[seafortn]

Sorry, no results were found containing "msie bugs"
The search for "msie exploits" returned:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:651496928 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b15

Now you see it, now you don't.

[mccalli]

Did a search for my domain, Eruvia. It told me there were fifteen results, then gave me the first ten and and a next button.

Clicked next - suddenly, "Sorry, there a no results for 'eruvia'". Pardon? Try searching again from scratch, and once again suddenly Eruvia has disappeared. Can't get my original 15 results back at all.

I'm putting this down to extremely ungraceful load handling and the ongoing Slashdotting. What's this running on anyway? Netcraft says IIS/6.0 on Linux, so it's another Akamai job, but the hardware behind it doesn't seem up to scratch yet.

Cheers,
Ian

Slashdot Effect

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Slashdotted after 20mins.
Exerpt:
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

I suppose that's what happens when you use ASP.Net and get a showing on the main index. Shouldn't they have expected this? I mean it's microsoft, not ask jeeves! On the plus side, I get they're getting loads of search data.

Wait a minute. With all this slashdot related input at an early stage could it be permenently biased in favour of Open Source, IT, Trolling and Pr0n?

My work here... is done.

Can't handle much traffic, can it?

[doublem]

Let me be blunt, if the Slashdot crowd can kill this engine so easily, the I don't see it completing with Google anytime soon.

A search for Linux Rocks gives me this:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

On the other hand, Searching for Microsoft Sucks gives me a page full of hits, the first of which is the microsoftsucks.org site.

Re:Technologies..

[robertjw]

Yeah, I can tell, it's a GREAT architecture.

I think they have a smoking pile of aspx at the moment.

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

It's sooooo accurate!

[Ransak]

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie"
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Did you find what you were looking for? Send us Feedback!

Re:It's sooooo accurate!

[WebMasterJoe]

Yeah, and it took 25 seconds for the search engine to come up with that.

Google has nothing to fear.

Re:It's sooooo accurate!

[Zorilla]

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly

You can't say I never tried; "Lunix" turned up 0 results as well.

super slashdot effect

[buzban]

whoa! don't everyone pile on at once! the poor thing just can't keep up.


...bah. go ahead. pile on. :P

Re:super slashdot effect

[buzban]

i get it now...i think it actually searches the whole web while you wait!

more m$ bullshit

[zer0mass]

It's funny: search "Linux Sucks" and you get hundreds of web pages and search for "Windows Sucks" and not even one web page is found! Instead, it asks me to check my spelling, use synonyms (

Makes one wonder how objective micro$oft really is.

ROTFL

[SharpFang]

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.


We've slashdotted Microsoft!

You have to wonder

[twitter]

I wonder if MSN users will be spammed with results based on EID and whatever all those error codes are. The spam? "buy more Microsoft".

Very inefficient and rude

[weeble]

I had 32Gig sucked off my servers in two days by their bot.

Most other search engines will drag the data over time dependant upon the size of the data and the total capability of the net connection. I know people who have spent ages getting their algorithms correct so they do not kill sites just because they have sufficient bandwidth,

The IP of their search engines is now blocked on every single network I run, as now will be their search site.

No Putty For You!

[cthrall]

> Sorry, no results were found containing "putty"

One billion pages and no putty?

search for firefox...

[robofunk]

and get no result whatsoever.

Search results 1-15

[arieswind]

one might notice that it never actually shows you the total number of results, just the range that you are viewing

Hum...

[RottenMind]

Sorry, no results were found containing "windows".

Re:Hum...

[Zorilla]

Sorry, no results were found containing "windows".

So dark in here...running out of air...can't....breathe!

Sneak Preview...

[polyp2000]

Nothing more than that really.

Its pretty slow, the results are inconsistent, cant even cope with a slashdotting. One things for sure this will be a real test of Microsofts server platform; So far I aint impressed.

Linux Recomendataion

[jlrowe]

Google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 234,000 for "linux recommendation". (0.36 seconds)

MSN preview try #1 for "linux recommendation":
Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes.

MSN preview try #2 for "linux recommendation":
Sorry, no results were found containing "linux recommendation"
SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Search for Open Source returns NOTHING!!

[Monoman]

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=o pen+source&FORM=SMCRT

Re:Search for Open Source returns NOTHING!!

[Monoman]

same result with or without quotes

Sorry, no results were found containing "open source"

SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Did you find what you were looking for? Send us Feedback!

It's even worse than the Microsoft corporate site

[silverbax]

I would hope this new site would be
a) at the very least, equal to the current msn.com
b) better than the search algorithms on microsoft.com

But, no luck. Even search terms that work on MSN pull no results at all. At least the Microsoft site usually provides wildly incorrect results.

Nice results Microsoft..

[nsanders]

Airplane - No Results
Motorcycles - No Results
Flight - No Results

Automobiles - MSN website, only site listed.
Email - Hotmail.com, only site listed
Calendar - MSN website, only site listed.
Software - Microsoft.com, only site listed.

Do it your self - only displays an error message

1 billion pages, of WHAT?

Re:Nice results Microsoft..

[contrapuntalmindset]

Here is what I get ... MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b16 They probably need to reboot!

queries

[rd4tech]

"debian" - only 1 result
"gentoo" - full page of results but cannot go to the second page no matter how many times I hit next, on the 4 hitting NEXT it returns "no results found", WTF???
"redhat" - full page everything ok
"linux vs windows" - some times full screen of data, some time hitting search returns "no results found", this is interesting
"ms office" - only one link
"microsoft office" - full page of links
"linux is better than windows" - full page, ok
"is linux better than windows" - full page , ok

Comparative tests
"Sorry, no results were found containing "windows sucks" - google returns half a million pages on the same query, conclusion #1, microsoft disagrees, they don't sux.
BTW I found this rant on why windows sux :), also found this funny page, be sure to check it out :) from the authors:
"Why microsoft shouldn't own a fast food company. At mc donalds they ask 'would you like fries with that'. At the microsoft fast food chain they ask, 'Do you want any more bugs with that'"

After 25 tries of "cannot process your query", I got : "Sorry, no results were found containing "windows is bad", fishy.
And of course, the entry 'longhorn' returns and entry titled "Longhorn from India, Longhorn for the .NET developer" :)) Now we know.

Re:Search for Whatever

[aldousd666]

I tried Litigious Bastards, and it came up with no results. Maybe SCO is giving up!

Too early to tell

[mixmasterjake]

I don't understand all these posts comparing google's huge number of results for a certain search, while the Microsoft one returns a small number. Searching is not about returning a vast quantity of links. Who goes past page 3 anyway? Most people never even go past page 1, so really 10 results is the most that are usually needed.

If you're going to compare the two, the criteria should be, which returned the most meaningful results - maybe only 1 results is needed. A vast number of results is not always helpful.

MS and competition

[tehanu]

Whenever I read about the way MS improves their stuff when there is actual competition, I wonder what Windows would have been like now if there had been any actual real competition for marketshare in OSes in the last decade or so.

Re:MS and competition

[WebMasterJoe]

Whenever I read about the way MS improves their stuff when there is actual competition...

This is an improvement?

grassroots!

[flaez]

we vote for a search engine not only by using it, but also by letting ourselves be crawled by it (google can crawl me even when other users are locked out due to server overload...)

if you have a non-commercial website, and if you can do without visits by some random jerk stumbling across your website,
simply block by referrer:
"msnbot/0.11 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

let's see successful they get if the really useful pages (which are mostly non-commercial) cannot be found with them

Pretty damn slow too...

[laddhebert]

Can't even stand up to the true load test of the /. effect....

-L

Sucks.

[stevey]

It failed the first test. Searching for my name gave no results.

With google I come top, without even cheating.

I search for CowboyNeal

[mlfallon]

I tried to see if it could find CowboyNeal, as it couldn't find me (obviously not notorious enough yet)?

I got the following as a response:

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

Is this a new version of the /. effect or just the old one?

Interesting...

[farzadb82]

Certain keywords seem to throw errors; for example if you use the keyword oracle, the search throws an error (after some time), however, if you use the keyword google, the results are instantanous!

funny how it works...

[DarkLox]

I find it funny that I did a search for 'linux' and it came back saying "sorry your search timed out"...

And when I did a search for "windows" it came back with no results.

Will I HAVE to do a search for money grubbing monopoly to find info on their own products?

Ohh The Irony !

[polyp2000]

Amusing Screenshot generator!

http://www.blackapology.com/downloads/irony.gif

Nick ...

What?

[Donny Smith]

The stupidest comment of the day. Congrats!
What'd you do that for?

>Anybody know what the search engine spider calls itself.

Look at your Web server log (if you know what I'm talking about)

Re:What?

[flaez]

> The stupidest comment of the day. Congrats!

not at all! now is the time to block it. if people swarm to use it, you can still unblock it and get all the hits you like. until that time, if enough people block it, it may remain so obviously behind that it will never gain momentum (most people use google, right now, remember? it's difficult to get people to switch from something they know, remember? even if what they are using is crap, so how much more will it take to make people leave google?)

My first try so far ...

[JPS]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

you chaps were lucky to get even one result...

[rixster]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

This reminds me of MS's "bet you can't crash our new Win2k server" competition....

Interesting results for "Google"

[TopherTG]

Try searching for Google. I half expected it to not show up at all, but it comes up as the first link. The second link is an antique site, which the contains no reference to Google or even the text "Google".

Micros***

[aghorne]

Searching for my favorite band TISM returned: Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b14 Good work MS...

Can't we all get along.

[suso]

Search engine war? Single portal to the internet? I've always considered one of the great aspects of the internet is that there are many choices from which to get your information.

Can't companies realize that it's good to have a sembiotic relationship with other companies?

Correction

[aldousd666]

I searched again and it came up. Seems fruity to me. Some search engine. No results once, second try , same results as google. This doesn't seem to be quite the same though, because the first result was http://sco.com/?sco=litigious+bastards which seems to me to be Microsoft Guessing that since so many sites point to them by that name, that they are the site you're looking for. google bombing -- providing insight into Microsoft's search algorithm.

Re:Correction

[one4nine4two]

i noticed a couple links with the specific text "litigious bastards" linking to the sco site turned up in the results, which would seem to indicate that they give keywords to sites based on the text that links to them, this may not be entirely true but it would be pretty damn stupid if it was

it's either that or someone at msn forced it to the top, i don't think ms is terribly concerned about sco though so why bother

Already Slashdotted??

[JackRabbitSlims]

All I get is :

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b13

Litigous bastards

[Stephen R Hall]

Seems fine to me - try a search for litigous bastards

searched for "Internet Explorer exploits"

[contrapuntalmindset]

results: Sorry, no results were found containing "Internet Explorer exploits" Of course not!

What a fabulous search engine...

[Tingulli 3]

Sorry, no results were found containing "sgi octane"

No doubt, this is true M$ technology!

Very interesting results

[entrager]

I've seen multiple people point out that certain searches returns 0 results, then criticize the fact that they can't possibly have 1,000,000,000 pages and not have any hits for "fishermen." I think I know why! I tried searching for something odd, "asteroid disease." Of course, the search returned nothing. I tried searching for it again a couple minutes later, and low and behold, there were results. Sounds like this engine queues searches, conducts them after telling the user that there are no hits, and then displays the results the next time someone searches for the same thing.

Try it for yourself.

Re:Very interesting results

[entrager]

I've confirmed it. Same results when using " illuminatus ombudsman" (grabbed from googlewhack.com). First time, no results. Second time, error returned (I suspect because it's still running the search). Third time, results.

I am torn.

[McDrewbie]

They have a place to provide feedback. I want to be helpful and tell them about the faults in how the rank sites (the ones discussed in all the earlier comments; especially giving to much weight to domain names.) But I don't want to help them compete with Google.

msn's search engine

[sixtysevenfordpu]

Search for "miserable failure" and "weapons of mass destruction" on both the MSN search tool and Google's and the first hit for both searches with both are the same.

Works great!

[unixcub]

As I sat, rubbing my chin, pondering what I could type into the little "search" box, I decided that "chinstrap beard" would be a good test since that's what was at hand at the moment. Apparently there are NO sites on the internet that feature the words 'chinstrap beard', because it gave me zero results. Ungeek worthy.

Unbiased?

[busman]

Sorry, no results were found containing "why microsoft sucks?"

Google : Results 1 - 10 of about 379,000 for "why microsoft sucks?". (0.24 seconds)

QED!

Site running IIS on Linux??

[carlsen]

I guess this must be an error but Netcraft shows the site as running on Linux...?

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=techprev iew.search.msn.com

Re:Site running IIS on Linux??

[apt]

I'd imagine it's a similar situation as described here.

Miserable Failure

[booyah]

Whats really funny, is the first hit is STILL George W Bush... :-)

they probably are just stealing googles database returns...

And the second try :

[JPS]

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"

SEARCH TIPS

1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Search for "redhat"

[jon3k]

"Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:651496928 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b15"

This was 2 seconds after for a "linux" search that worked fine.

Coincidence or conspiracy? You decide!

Browser support???

[shrapnull]

For some reason the searches didn't work in Safari, Firefox or Camino in OS X, IE for X returned results.

Think that's a coincidence?

Episode I

[k31bang]

I just hope that Episode I of Search Engine Wars isn't badly done. That would break my heart.

On TerraServer...

[jared_hanson]

Does anyone know of any more "open" service similar to TerraServer. I beleive that TerraServer is the premiere source of satellite imagery, and it really bothers me that Microsoft has such a lead in this area. If not, it would be a wonderful thing for Google to start providing, as there is a *ton* of money to be made from localized searches.

There are tons of really cool application to be built using GPS along with a massive database of terrain images. For example, I was just reading an article about an experiment where someone went on vacation and took a bunch of pictures. The whole time, this person had a GPS unit tracking his movements. In the end, he compared timestamps from the GPS data to timestamps on the photographs, and built a map with pinpoints showing where each picture was taken.

Anyway, I think there are huge opportunities for innovation this sort of thing in the future. It'd be nice if there was an easy way for developers to get access to it.

Re:they need to stop. just stop

[elrusoloco]

You'd be really surprised just how many people there are in the world who, when it comes to computers, don't ever bother changing their default page, etc. Microsoft has done quite well up to this point by playing to the lowest common denominator (which is what you get anytime you're pushing "ease of use" over actual features/technology). I'm sure that if IE 7 ships with this thing set to the default search page, they'll get their share of hits. Besides, are you really that upset that Microsoft is going to waste time and money? If you really wanted to subvert them, you should encourage them to throw as much behind this as possible, just to watch it all fail miserably.

First impressions -- can't find much

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

Even ignoring the slowness, the results are extremely lacking
compared to Google. Here's a few quick searches I tried:

gethostbyname - no matches (Google=161000)
starbucks - 1 match (Google=1500000)
spiderman - 1 match (Google=2550000)
cassini - no matches (Google=941000)
gucci - 1 match (Google=3340000)
"garner state park" - failure (Google=3190)

Looks like it will find roughly /2 million times fewer/
matches for a given keyword of Google. I don't think it's
quite ready to enter ship-test just yet.

Re:First impressions -- can't find much

[aldoman]

I see. Maybe large swades of the database are still being compiled/uploaded?

Anyway, it's going to be interesting at least to see how MS will scale this. It's having problems with less than a billion pages in the index and a very few amount of users on it, compared to google with its near 5 billion and millions of concurrent users.

I think we slashdotted Microsoft!

[dan_sdot]

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.
EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b14

Everyone's dream has come true!!

Robots.txt

[caluml]

Why don't Apache play dirty in the Microsoft do (don't flame me, read some sites), and include a robots.txt in their distribution that blocks Microsoft spiders. If IIS ran 60% of websites, I'm sure they'd "leverage", and "innovate" to "protect users" in a similiarly underhanded way.

Doesn't work in Mozilla Firefox.

[jbwiv]

I've verified it. If I go to the link in Firefox, I get:

MISSING CONTROL: lwhead

However, going there with IE works just fine.

Apparently, the percentage of us who don't prefer to have our computers take over by popups/home page hijacking are irrelevant.

Re:Doesn't work in Mozilla Firefox.

[jhenager]

Real men are brave enough to use insecure browsers.

Can Microsoft use IIS as leverage against Google?

[Anonymous Writer]

While initially, it may seem that Microsoft may not be able to use its OS leverage against Google because it is a server-based application, perhaps the precense of Microsoft IIS market share may have influence. They have already demonstrated that, despite the open standards of the web, they still attempt to lock-in users to their software.

Microsoft may somehow enable websites hosted on IIS to work with their search engine more efficiently than the way Google works with regular sites. Even though IIS doesn't have majority market share, it still has 22.68% at the moment. This still may be an advantage. Google does provide a search appliance for intranets and public websites, which probably integrates with the main Google search engine (I'm just guessing). But I doubt Google search appliances are anywhere near as commonplace as IIS servers.

Mod parent up

[elrusoloco]

Thank you for mentioning the larger issue at hand and not focusing on the technical shortcomings of this pre-pre-alpha release. Clearly, this thing is not ready for prime time, so, please, stop posting about how many results you got for a particular term - nobody is impressed. It may claim to search a billion pages, but obviously the interface presented here does not have access to all of that data. Even if Microsoft was trying to force a rigged search engine down people's throats, do ya'll think they would be so stupid as to purposefully return 0 results for Linux-related queries? If they're really criminal masterminds like so many people think, they'd have done a much more subtle job of fixing the results.

It's a bug

[uss_valiant]

First, I did a search for "nei" (because it's part of my domain name). The search engine presented several pages of matching results.
Then, the search engine had an error during a request and I did a new search for the same word, "nei".
And the search engine answered with:
Sorry, no results were found containing "nei"
So it's a bug, because I got thousands of results when I searched for "wikipedia".

Nothing at all

[xconslash]

Nothing
vs.
Nothing

Many searched, none found...

[gmezero]

I searched on the name of my web site as well as those of my friends businesses and not a single one of them came up with results. Here were my findings:

Game Zero Magazine -- Google=701,000 / MS=0
Ten Foot Pole Software -- Google=97,200 / MS=0
Polymer City Chronicles -- Google=2,790 / MS=0
NOP Design -- Google=112,000 / MS=15

Pretty much crap if you ask me, even AltaVista, Webcrawler, and Vivisimo turned up more results that the MS search.

Re:Many searched, none found...

[jhenager]

And this surprised you in what way? :^)

Re:Many searched, none found...

[gmezero]

Ah... Touche.

Although my point was testing something other than Linux. ;p

Yep, it works!

[richie2000]

Search Engine Test Methodology.

Didn't find UNIX either

[jhenager]

At least it did find Apple, but they have an investment in that company, in addition to ripping off the interface...

This won't work for me

[Stevyn]

I'd say a good portion of my search queries on google are linux related. Things like entering the error message in quotes or the name of a file to get specific help on it are invaluable. I like that I can trust google not to blatently skew results their favor.

At least they're not biased:

[saintp]

C# unfriendly

[Pedrito]

As a C# programmer, I frequently run searches on google with the keyword "C#" in the search. Google does a good job with it.

Microsoft's search engine on the other hand seems to toss out the "#" character which makes it pretty useless. Kind of funny given who created C#.

Guess I'll be sticking with google.

Outdated link posted

[kismet666]

I believe that the preview ended and the site went live this week, you might try using this url insted: http://search.msn.com/.

Comments about terms and phrases not working on the preview version work great on the live version.

1st hit for "Linux" is www.linux.org

4th hit for "Linux news" is /.

Perhaps some people around here should figure out how to use the tool before denigrating it?

Re:Outdated link posted

[jhenager]

Yeah, ok, so I search for "unix" and it comes up with an eBay link to unix software as #1. I am ashamed that I doubted Microsoft's ability to write fine, error free software. I am converted now.

My take...

[bairy]

A brand new algorithmic search engine -- built from the ground up -- on Microsoft technology

Is that something you'd actually want to boast?

Also, is this gonna be in beta for the next 5 years like Longhorn?

On a more serious note. I always would have thought it better that the engines actually share some ideas and technology.. kinda like a super-search engine. I know that "microsoft" and "co-operative" don't exactly go in the same sentence but it would be a nice idea. It's nice they're creating an "all new" engine to integrate with their old one (who uses that anyway?.. apart from people who's homepages are eaten over by msn messenger installs) but it does seem rather late, especially as google and other engines are so well established and offer far more than, I suspect, MS ever will.

Just as a side note, and slightly offtopic but I am curious.. have any of the linux distributors got a search engine and if so, how do they react to searches for microsoft?

Maybe if I ask about "Paris Hilton"...

[frank_adrian314159]

Sorry, no results were found containing "functional programming".

Had to Do It

[PateraSilk]

In Soviet Russia, Bush bashes YOU!!!!

Had to do it(obligatory sucks search)

[Sir_Dill]

Sorry, no results were found containing "microsoft sucks"

SEARCH TIPS

1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?

2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".

3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Re:Technologies..

[linuxci]

It's too bad that Firefox on Windows and Safari both seem to handle aspx incorrectly sometimes.

Just to make it clear NO web browser - IE, Mozilla or whatever handles ASP.net, ASP, PHP or any other extension you see on the web. They are all server side processing languages and output HTML to the client (the browser). The HTML is what is rendered by the browser.

Therefore if your browser is having a problem it's because the HTML output is invalid, it's not a failing of ASP.net it's a faling of the coder.

Not that I'm advocating ASP.net (personally I try to avoid MS stuff because of previous products lacking) however some people say it's a major improvement.

1 hit on 'bill gates'

[jpellino]

1 hit for slashdot
15 hits for 'cheese'

No comment needed

[spacefight]

for this search, err 2nd searchresult.

Crackboy: Search for Linux

[drsmack1]

I searched for suse and got back one (1) hit: www.suse.com How did you search for suse? Keyword: tinfoil & troll -clue

This thing is completely broken:P

[zmooc]

First I searched for zmooc - no results, 5 minutes later: 15 results. A minute later a friend of me got 85 results:) Then I searched for "anale sex met paarden" - I got 12 results while a friend that also search for "anale sex met paarden" first got 2 and then 15:) It must be spidering at 5 terabyte/sec or something:P

Okay this is just stupid

[hoborocks]

Remember the "searching for XFree86" adult content thing?

Here's something funny and sick.

Search for "anus fist" (no quotes)

For some reason it's not adult content...hummm....

Only one M$ page on the WHOLE internet...

[FoboldFKY]

...since this search returns only one result.

Funny, you'd think they'd index more pages on their own site then just the main one. And what about all the anti-Microsoft stuff that's all over the net?

Just found it somewhat odd...

Search for XFree86

[VUSE g-EE-k]

It looks like the XFree86 bug is still in the code. A search for XFree86 returns a warning about adult content.

MORON

[drsmack1]

It is not working; I did a search for clueless & tinfoil & hat & zelot & boob Your site still came up first. Those bastard are thwarting you!

at least it can find ...

[thrillseeker]

...the imporant stuff

not very robust...

[Macgyver7017]

Ha! very useful results:

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

How much to compete Google?

[marcas1]

1 coder and 8 PCs is enough : Gigablast

I think you're on the wrong site

[Ucklak]

http://search.msn.com gives me results.

Re:I think you're on the wrong site

[catch23]

that's the old search engine, not the new one they're going to be releasing soon. Jeez won't you read the article or something?

Re:I think you're on the wrong site

[Ucklak]

Damn. Obviously I didn't RTFA!

Just responding to links and propaganda.

Even if you go to MSN.com, the search says "New!" and those searches come up.

try xfree86

[cyfer2000]

and the search engine said

You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content.

Warning: If you are under 18 or live in an area where it is illegal for you to view explicit content, please revise your search.

My search results:

[binaryfeed]

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

MS Search doesn't do languages

[TimoP]

Example: Make a search for 'sisällönvalvonta', which is Internet Explorer Content Advisor in Finnish.

MSSearch:Sorry, no results were found containing "sisällönvalvonta"

Google: 32 results, first result Microsoft browser security page www.microsoft.com/finland/security/childrenonline/ doc1.asp

I had to try it...

[robi2106]

I don't want to be a slashbot using group think here... but I had to try the following... Search on "Microsoft sucks" for each search page. Here are the results.

Google's "microsoft sucks" page

Microsoft's "Microsoft sucks" page

It looks like it takes a lot less thought to fool MS search into giving you no results than it takes for Google.

Re:I had to try it...

[robi2106]

Ok... In the 30 minutes since I first tried that search on the new MS search, and now, it is suddenly returning results...

Does the MS Search have on demand crawling? If a search tearm is not indexed, does it go out and find that term, then include the results in the search DB?

An interesting idea if it is...

jason

Feedback

[Phoe6]

M$ wants your Feedback about their New Search Engine here, but actually it is taking down all the points for the feedback right from here. So,here we go!
Why should this be a preview?This is as good as their actual release!

They're tracking clicked links

[SteveX]

Notice that the results you get back aren't direct links to the results, but rather links that redirect through an MSN page?

For example:

http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://today.icantfocus.c om /blog/archives/entries/eating_your_own_dog_food.ic f&&DI=3865&IG=fabd4034971140859b1edb6c16e17093&POS =1&CM=WDU&CE=1

This means a few things:

They can track what you clicked on. If most people who search for "dog food" end up clicking on the "Alpo" link, then perhaps that link will gravitate towards the top. That's a good way to figure out which links are more interesting to users, although it does leave some potential for abuse. Guess we'll see how it plays out.

The bummer about it is that if MSN is slow, every single search result link you get back is going to be slow because they all redirect through MSN.

Microsoft Logo

[myLobster]

On the search page the MS logo on the bottom right is really naff quality. They've used a jpg for this whilst the MSN logo to its left is a gif and a lot sharper.

Feedback link

[singleantler]

How many spammer-style SEOs are going to spend their time clicking on the little rainbow 'feedback' links for their sites and choosing "Is exactly what I was looking for"?

Whatever's gathered from that is going to be a nightmare to administrate as it's so open to abuse, even if it's only there during the beta period.

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).

Building the Engine with our Queries?

[Filmwatcher888]

With all these people claiming that their first hit doesn't work, but subsequent hits do, could Microsoft be building their search with our queries? Tha more you make a request for a specific topic, the more results it feels that ineeds to find. The less important (queried) results don't show any results initially. So if we keep this up, Linux, Suse, and Porn wil be the most archived things the search engine knows how to find.

Actually it did find wikipedia for me

[melted]

Strange.

Re:Actually it did find wikipedia for me

[poofyhairguy82]

Me too. First Result.

More FUD... oe something like that

[poptones]

MS kicked Netscape's ass because Netscape fell into a spiral of devolution while IE became a much better product. In the fight between Netscape 3 and IE4, it was no contest because IE was, at the time, simply the better product. Remember, this was when Netscape was just sure it owned the web and, at the time, it was even thumbing its nose at the W3C. This is perhaps the most perfect example of Microsoft's "embrace and extend" philosophy. Once MS becomes dominant in a market it's very easy for themn to retain that dominance - but attaining dominance in any particular field is NOT a given even for MS.

So compare then to now: you can't even get decent fucking search results of Microsoft's own support site from Microsoft itself. They can't even properly track their own content - how on earth can anyone trust them to track everyone elses? I work tech support a few days a week and I don't even think about using Microsoft's "search the knowledge base" page - it's often laughably short on search results even for well known things like "xp rpc exploit" and "download ie6."

When I can get proper tech support info on Microsoft's own products without having to go to Google and type site:microsoft.com THEN I'll start to believe this is like Netscape vs. Microsoft.

Re:More FUD... oe something like that

[cpeterso]

yes, Microsoft's MSDN search is so bad, I use Google with site:msdn.microsoft.com to search MSDN for my Win32 API questions. Microsoft should be embarrased..

Re:More FUD... oe something like that

[tgrigsby]

MS kicked Netscape's ass because Netscape fell into a spiral of devolution while IE became a much better product. In the fight between Netscape 3 and IE4, it was no contest because IE was, at the time, simply the better product.

In the fight between NS 4 and IE 4, Netscape was the better product. All IE had going for it was that it was installed with the OS, and Billy Boy Gates was leveraging his company's monopoly position against companies that fraternized with the enemy.

'Nuff said.

Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Noren]

heh, my current record is "cat", which also returns no hits(!)

From msn:

Sorry, no results were found containing "cat"

cat returns "about 57,500,000" google pages.

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[bladesjester]

There's a good reason for this. It's also a *nix command ;)

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Noren]

Possibly that's a cause- although "rabbit" doesn't have that reason... A search for "then" returns no MSN hits, but returns 190M google hits.

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Noren]

Okay, I'm done- a search of "that" returns no MSN pages and 1,090,000,000 google pages... more than the total number of pages than MSN claims to have indexed.

As an added bonus, slashdot.org is the second google hit on a search for "that"!

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[bladesjester]

Sure it does. Rabbits are self-replicating programs (which I have to admit are most amusing to write just to see how long it takes to lock up an old system) :P

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[LnxAddct]

I win with "the". No results, I took a screenshot for memories heh.
Regards,
Steve

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Noren]

Heh, I tried that earlier but it gave me hits on MSN. "tHe", on the other hand, gave me no hits on MSN but all the expected hits on google, which could be either case-sensitivity for MSN or just the general flakiness of the engine...

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Erik Hensema]

As an added bonus, slashdot.org is the second google hit on a search for "that"!

Yeah, but that's because everybody's linking to that site.

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Cat returns lots of results:
See for yourself

How about rabbit?
Lots of results

How about wikipedia?
Lots of results, the first one wikipedia.org.



If you are trying to dump on Microsoft, you could at least get your facts right.

Re:Contest: with no MSN hits, most google hits

[Noren]

My facts were correct at the time I made the searches.

MSN Search vs. Google

[pipingguy]

My site only shows up 5 times in the first 15 results and not at #1, so I'm pretty disappointed.

funny, but not true.

[peterjm]

lots of oss mailing list posts, zdnet articles, etc.

try for yourself.

Re:funny, but not true.

[slashrogue]

Interesting. I wonder if it was the /. effect ... at first I got the "MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request." that a number of others posted about, so I tried again and did in fact get the "Sorry..." message. I can't seem to get beyond the error message now, though.

If this "techpreview" is anything how it's going to turn out, this search is teh suck. :)

Great Search Engine!

[Omega1045]

I did a search on the new "MSN Search", which really pointed out a great way to search the web:

Example Here

first search that i did..

[Errtu76]

..was for 'weed'. When i saw the little rasta-like flags next to the results i thought M$ finally had made something cool.

Oh and if you search for "/." (no quotes), the first result is www.netscape.com , followed by microsoft.com :P

It does not understand permalinks

[Eustace Tilley]

The phrase I searched for showed up on the home page of the site originally, but it has sinced moved into the archives. That is to be expected with dynamically generated pages. With Google, there is a cache, so if the engine makes a poor link choice, I can look at the cache and make a better one.

Almost not a competitor for Google

[Maljin Jolt]

Search engine deficiency is easily detected: by what it cannot or does not find. I suspect Microsoft engine will be pretty biased against open source technology and competitors, and pro to minion partners. Attractive for blind consumers, but less practical for IT specialists.

Well, I predict a failure to Microsoft, unless they will run indexing and lookup machinery on some better platform than theirs.

/.'ed

[rrodkey]

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:651496928 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b15

ok, so you're going to have to hit search again.

[peterjm]

odd, they must not like /. referal headers.

I'm not impressed

[tommasz]

I did an "ego surf" on my last name, and got no results. Google returns almost 300 references (I have an uncommon last name). I'm not impressed.

No results for "open source" or "free software"

[julie-h]

Searching for "open source" or "free software" gives no results. "xfree 86" crashes the search and gives an error. Hmm...

Dateline, Redmond

[phyruxus]

Dateline, Redmond Wa.

Uber-corporation Microsoft (c) announced a new search service today. Microsoft bigwig Steve Ballmer had this to say:

"Our new search engine is the ultimate in modern search technology. It indexes the entire internet and stores it in a Microsoft Access (tm) database. Users querying the engine for a given term (such as "linux") are given links to a random assortment of possibly-related sites."

(interviewer) Google's search is lauded as highly relevant and lightening fast. Yet you've innovated and taken a different course, returning random results. Why is this better than Google's method?

(S.B.) "Well, you have to keep in mind that our concern is the average windows user. We have discovered a flaw in Google's technology; the heavy reliance on research, strong programming and intelligence, while novel, has resulted in a system where relevant, useful results are returned very quickly."

(interviewer) ..and your method is better than this because...

(S.B.) "Ok. When someone searches on Google, they are limited to only relevant items, because that's what Google has latched onto. The weakness in Google's method is that most pages are not returned, because a machine has decided they are irrelevant. The new Microsoft (c) paradigm is that we let the USER decide what's relevant and what's not; the machine makes no determination of what is or is not relevant. See how it's better? Look, 99% of all computers in the world run Windows. And people don't mind rebooting, not at all. We've added value to this model, someone's got to do the work, why not just dump it on the user, let them take the blame? My porsche won't go any slower because someone else had to do extra work. That's the beauty of the Microsoft way (tm)! We let other people do all the work, then we take the credit."

(interviewer) But most people say they like Google specifically *because* it returns relevant terms so quickly.. aren't you just dumping all the work of searching back on the user's lap?

(S.B.) "You clearly are an enemy of innovation. Look, People are smarter than machines. Therefore, since a person can only view one page at a time, a person must view every existing web page to know whether or not their guess of which page is most relevant, is in fact true. And so, our search engine is better, because we don't prevent the user--"

(interviewer) Isn't this all just a semantic argument against your economic competitor and technological superior, Google?

(S.B.) "This interview is over."

A Microsoft Public Relations Representative did note that search terms pertaining to the purchase of goods and services did in fact not return random results, and in point of fact return only a single link, to www.microsoft.com.

Re:Dateline, Redmond

[lcsjk]

I think you should be modded "F" for Funny!

search engine broken -- not surprised

[NynexNinja]

When I searchedd for "linux", I got no results found for "linux", then a couple minutes later, it returned some results, then when I clicked to goto the next page, it crapped out with this cryptic error message:

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

A few /. common searches...

[ajservo]

MSN - worked
Mozilla - Worked
Linux - Worked
DRM - Worked
apple - worked
slashdot - worked (thank god!)
1+1 - "Search Error" (What no Calculator?)
Opera - didn't work first time, second it did
Open Source - "search error"
them - "search error"
Search Error - "No Results Found"

Seems to me MS has got this search thing down just like they've got everything else going for them.

Tainted Search

[Tocano33]

Remember when the MSN filtered out xfree86 as adult content? Well seems that code has appeared in here as well.

Searching on 'xfree86' returns You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content.

What's funny is that searching on 'xfree87' or 'xfree85' or even 'xfree69' returns legitimate pages.

So far, so good!

[callipygian-showsyst]

It puts my site up first for a search on "3D Photography"! I'n not 'til the 10th page on Google.

Google's getting attacked hard by "Search Engine Optimizers." There are many times I do a search and I see "junk" sites that consist of many pages of computer-generated text and "link farms". There are even a number of sites that copy content, like reviews, from Amazon, and just link back to Amazon with their ID in the link so they get a spiff. (Here'a an example of such a site!

A little compeition to Google will help the industry develop better technology against search-engine spammers, and will give us a choice.

Google Type Site: Filter works as well

[Filmwatcher888]

Try doing a serch using these keywords -

nintendo site:ign.com

I haven't found any others that work though...

lousy, more features means buggy for microsoft

[demon4]

Please try again in a few minutes. What is this an 8 ball? I never thought u could get a search engine that crashed as much as windows me. what else can they get to crash, maybe they can upgrade hotmail and make it crash too, or upgrade notepad to make it faster

Re:Technologies..

[jkabbe]

I assumed there was a problem with the code written. However, isn't it strange that IE shows the page fine but other browsers do not? Perhaps if the content type is not set properly the browsers go off the extension and IE "knows about" ASP while Camino/Safari/Firefox do not? But, yeah, it goes back to poor coding and poor testing at Amazon.com

Feedback

[flossie]

"Please provide your feedback in the form below. Thank you for helping us to improve MSN Search. Although we won't respond directly to your comments, we will use them to improve our service."

Are they being choosy in deciding from whom they will accept feedback? When I click the "submit" button (using Firefox on Linux) nothing seems to happen except that an error message appears in the Javascript console: "Error: changeImage is not defined".

Looks like it's slashdotted

[mksolutions]

my query which was my first one just returned the following, no kidding:

"Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes."

This never happens to me on Google

[MarkRebuck]

Search Error
[snip]
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.
Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059
HC: 71d61b16

so i

[neko9]

entered "sex" and what do i get?

You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content.

Warning: If you are under 18 or live in an area where it is illegal for you to view explicit content, please revise your search.

and thats all? wtf?! where is my pr0n!?

Even better.

[douglips]

Googlebot/2.1 (Compliant; MSNSearch/2.0; Windows XP; +http://techpreview.search.msn.com/)

It sucks

[crushinghellhammer]

As the ultimate test of a search engine, I entered my " (first name) (last name)" - without the brackets, of course - and the results were terrible. Google pulls up 213 results...this msn thing pulls up 5, yes FIVE.

This can be the only relevant test for me, and since the performance is so miserable, I deem it an absolute failure!

Funny!!

[catch23]

funny how xfree86 returns "You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content."

If you search for xfree87 or xfree76, you actually get results. Strangely, xfree69 doesn't tell you about adult content. What is wrong with 86? Was 1986 the year of pr0n?

Re: rabbit

[redherring22]

apparently there was an episode of sex in the city that mentioned a rabbit that wasn't of your typical garden variety and that used batteries... leading to spammers sending a flood of offers for R/\bb|tS and MSN Hotmail subsequently throwing them all in my junk folder. maybe they use their spam filters in the search engine as well?

nigritude ultramarine vs. "nigritude ultramarine"

[FuzzyDaddy]

Intrestingly,
nigritude ultramarine
produces no results, but
"nigritude ultramarine"
produces a bunch.
Don't know how useful that's gonna be.

Search for "best search engine"

[Blitzenn]

lol, I would never trust the results from this! A search for the "best search engine" returns one result, itself. I would expect to see google there as they are by far the largest. Even MS can't argue that. I want real results, not MS's wishful fantasies.

Did I spell Linux wrong???

[vettemph]

Sorry, no results were found containing "linux"
SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

Did you find what you were looking for? Send us Feedback!

'Apple' Test

[saskwach]

Looks like MS fails the apple test they made a big deal about with google.

Re:Did I spell Windows wrong???

[Petronius]

Sorry, no results were found containing "Windows"
SEARCH TIPS
1) Check your spelling. Are the words in your query spelled correctly?
2) Try using synonyms. Maybe the site you're looking for uses slightly different words, like "film" instead of "movie".
3) Make your search more general. For example, instead of using specific product names, try using the generic product category.

SWEET!!

[theneb]

"Wat a freaking kool!" MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b14

Microsoft Technology

[merc]

Welcome to a sneak peek of MSN's new search technology. What do we have under the hood? A brand new algorithmic search engine -- built from the ground up -- on Microsoft technology.

[entered search query] (vanity search =-)

Search Error
MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes.

Yep, it's Microsoft technology alright.

Slashdotted?

[Venotar]

Very Microsoft-like:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Where do I begin ..

[essreenim]

Firstly, it really sucks. It cannot find anything. I typed in a number of strings that google would always reliably find and it failed to return a single link.
Secondly, its sllllloooowwwww. Thats what happens when you use Windows servers instead of Linux etc..
Thirdly, as mentioned above, it may be biased, although I admit it did return one measly link for google - the link to www.google.com.

Finally, I am very amused that Microsoft have failed to set a good first impression here. We don't need more search engines. We need more good public web content..

Re:The ultimate test

[Strudelkugel]

I typed in "slashdotted" and got this:

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:1658889542 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b14

Back to the drawing board!

Searching for 'google'

[marinebane]

Google
Search engine returns keyword search results based on relevance of content and the number of links to a particular URL from other sites.
www.google.com

this is no where near as nicely put as the results for 'msn search' (which list special features etc...)?
a search for all my favourite distros also seems to show up not much relevance. If this is microsoft's way of getting rid of competition, it sickens me.

Also another down side to this search engine is that the links are logged through a microsoft site like www.somemicrosoftsite.com/?log=cookies&steal=sessi on&abuse=privacy&redirect=www.google.com

truly sickening. If this is their idea of a "New Algorithm" (logging clicks), then they really have hit rock bottom, and they continue to dig. If microsoft were any more stupid, you'd have to water it twice a week.

I expect to see microsoft patches, service packs, office products, inferior browsers and entire operating systems that use this same approach to minimizing competition in the near future.

First step to building a better search engine....

[Alan]

Make it be able to hold up to a lot of traffic!!

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b16

never saw this in the google beta

[spacepimp]

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes. EID: f:2114719238 - 1041:1041:10004:1059 HC: 71d61b16

MS is Slashdotted!

[StraightTalkExpress]

Search Error

MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

Ha ha!

It returns results now.

[Zany Paraclete]

In every case I've checked in this discussion where somebody finds a search which returns no results (e.g., "cat", somewhere above -- yep, "cat" returned ZERO results), it starts returning results later on.

So... How do you explain this?

Perhaps somebody at MS is reading this discussion and fixing the cases reported here. That sounds implausible to me, dunno 'bout you.

It's more reasonable to assume that there's some meaningful reason why this is happening: MS may be annoying, but they do have competent programmers there. Maybe the engine is supposed to be "learning" what people are interested in searching for, or something wacky like that.

Chances are, it's doing (or trying to do) something which sounded clever to some PhD at MS Research, and at the moment the implementation isn't working very well. But any company which could make Windows reasonably stable (even if it did take them over a decade) can eventually write a search engine that actually finds things. They will do this while everybody at Slashdot is still busy laughing at what idiots they are. Netscape learned this the hard way. A lot of UNIX companies (remember UNIX? Obsolete OS, sort of like Windows but even less compatible with itself, and without the usability or manageability features) did the same.

I love waiting for my searches...

[The Real Nem]

Search Error: MSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again in a few minutes.

Uh, /. ed maybe?

[qzulla]

This is what my results were:

Search ErrorMSN Search is temporarily unable to process your request.

Please try again in a few minutes.

EID: f:618926422 - 1041:1041:10004:1059

HC: 71d61b13

Search and Feedback, No results

[lcsjk]

I searched for my name and got no results - Google had hundreds.

I searched for 'panasonic digital camera' and got no results - Google had thousands.

I tried to submit a comment. The link was bad.

I wanted them to add a new feature to the search engine. "Find something!!!"

I can hardly wait for this search engine to go mainstream.

"more useful everyday"

[ALpaca2500]

i hope it gets more useful every day... right now its usefulness is 0.

McDonalds

[tacocat]

2004: Over 1 Billions pages searched...

2006: Over 100 Trillions pages searched...

2007: DuoDectillions Searched...

Poor search focus, or strange ordering of results

[Simon Brooke]

I have a Java class, ShuffleWidget, which I often use when assessing search engines because its name is unique and so all the results tend to come from my site (or places that refer to my site). Plugging this into the new MSN search does, indeed, bring back pages from my site, but, interestingly, not the ShuffleWidget page itself, despite the fact that according to my logs, "msnbot/0.11 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)" has scanned the page on an almost daily basis throughout June. Google by contrast brings the ShuffleWidget page back as it's second hit.

It seems they've some work to do in ordering their search results.

overemphasis on popular pages

[kippy]

they must have seen your post cause I got a bunch of hits. The problem is, and this is related to other searches I've tried, you don't need 100 links to http://www.wikipedia.org/sometopic. Google is guilty of this to some extent too at least for a wikipedia search.

but peep this: I did a search for "Jim's blog" to see if it would pull up my friend's blog in the first few pages like google does. The MSN search came up with the popular "Jim's blog" links followed by dozens (hundreds?) of links to subpages on those first few links.

When I'm looking for say, "palm help", I don't want a list like:

http://palm.com
http://palm.com/faq
http://pal m.com/contact
.
.
.
http://palm.com/support
h ttp://palm.com/whatever

I expect something useful like

http://palm.com
http://palm.com/support
http://palmusers.org
htt p://chat.org/archives/palm/aug-2003
.
.
.

Simple conclusion: It sucks ass. at least for now.

MSN Bots = Never Heard of Me

[fireboy1919]

Maybe I'm just blessed. Google is all over my site. Searching for my name on Google returns my site as the number one hit, and sites about me are 1,2,3 and 8.

All the other sites return stuff that hasn't changed in 5 years or more. A few are smart enough to get the perl module I put on CPAN, which is at least something.
Here's the bot's listing from my site.

I've not submitted anything to any search engine. Google is the only one that has found me after two years. Microsoft doesn't even know I exist. :)

quwl.

[Fuzzums]

Search engine /.ed!!

[mirror :: www.google.com]

No total...

[kabocox]

I did a search. It took about 30 seconds and didn't have a total. Google doesn't have much to worry about until the search time is reduced to under 5 seconds.

Netscan vs. Google Groups

[harmonica]

Kind of suprsising

Why? Netscan isn't a Google Groups replacement or lookalike, it's some sort of research project on connections between groups and on authors. And even more of a privacy nightmare than Google (that profile feature). But I don't know US law, it's probably perfectly legal.

Why I know for a fact that MS's engine sucks

[Espo_SHIZ]

I host some popular sites. One of my access logs is ~1 GB/day. In addition to Webalizer'ing and awstat'ing my logs, I personally look in there. I see all the crawlers scanning me, and MS's is nowhere near the top.

Actually, "xfree86" returns relevant results.

[robbkidd]

Eh ... how do I tell that MSN thinks it's adult content? I followed your link (subtracting the added space) and got a number of XFree86 relevant results.

MSN Search Bombs

[CommandoB]

Microsoft's new search engine seems to duplicate "Google bombs".

A search for "miserable failure" or "weapons of mass destruction" yields the familiar results.

Microsoft's new search technology, however, has brought fame to latest most "talentless hack".

So, critics of google bombing won't find any relief from Microsoft...

Slashdotted - does anyone have...

[SuperKendall]

Well, it just will not respond at all now. Does anyone have a link to the Google cache for techpreview.search.msn.com so I can try it out? :-)

developers developers developers developers

[gosand]

I did a search for "developers developers developers developers developers" and didn't get what I was looking for. It came up with Macromedia.com as the first hit (?) and I didn't see what I was looking for in any of the hits. Tried it on Google though and got the goods.

why javascript?

[rpeppe]

Ok, so I've got a non-standard web browser. But it complies with older web standards, and works just fine with Google, and much of the rest of the WWW.

Why, oh why, does Microsoft have to rely on Javascript for this page, when a simple HTML form would do?

Do Slashdot Search for IE

[simetra]

... Alas, nobody's perfect

Ironically, a bad tool for searching the MSDN

[Mr_Huber]

MSDN's search engine is so abysmally bad, I dropped it years ago and now just use Google. For example "CRegKey example" gives a link into the MSDN documentation, plus links to several examples on usage. The same search on MSN's search does not show the MSDN page as the first link and does not have any really good examples on the front page.

Sad. They can't even search their own documentation effectively.

Privacy Issue

[phyy-nx]

MSN Search results for "Cosmic Encouter"
Link Text: Cosmic Encounter Online
Link: http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://www.cosmicencounter. com/screens/home.html&&DI=3865&IG=bc5e260392264f34 bf75f0e16b9e11ad&POS=1&CM=WDU&CE=1

Google Search results for "Cosmic Encounter"
Link Text: Cosmic Encounter Online - multiplayer online game
Link: http://www.cosmicencounter.com/

I'm going to guess: E7

[harborpirate]

You sunk my battleship!

Yep, slashdotted.

It also went out on ArsTechnica and Microsoft Watch this morning, just to be sure it'd be inundated by all geeks possible.

Before it went under, I compared a couple search results to google. The results were similar. The main thing I noticed is that google's threaded display really helps identify multiple results from the same site, whereas MSN is still displaying individually.

I also noticed the MSN search was slow, but the volume of traffic coming from slashdot and elsewhere makes it impossible to discern how fast or slow it really is under normal load.

Re:First they laugh..

[kilfarsnar]

LOL!

QGI? It's the quorumgroup.. quorumgroup.. quoru..

[phazethru]

I tried typing in 'QGI', the acronmy for an open source project I started/dropped a few years ago, as a test. The first 5 ranked pages come up and point to www.quorumgroup.ca. The first ranked page was index.html, and the next four were single clicks off of index.html. Seems a bit redundant. Maybe I'm just picky, but I think the point of a search engine is variety.

horrible intuition

[Metex]

Search Google:

MSN
Results 1-15 containing "google"

all results are google.com however they give google.uk, google.ca, google.fr

Altivista
AltaVista found 28,645,050 results
the results on the first page are varied
3 are google.com, answers.google.com, news.google.com

Time to abuse the monopoly again...

[gunnm]

What's to stop them from making the next version of IE have a built-in MSN searchbar?

OOPS

[gwoodrow]

I just ran a search on Microsoft's new search engine and I accidentally crashed the internet. My bad.

Search for...

[James Dorn]

Search for 'Microsoft sucks' For some reason, no web pages could be found...

No cache mode ... also can't trust Microsoft

[minairia]

There's no cache option (yet). That's the feature I love most about Google, how I can get the information I want matter if a site has been taken down or is on some balky, slow server somewhere.

On an aside, the ulitimate combination would be in Google would buy Archive.org and you would be able to get a historical cache of every site on the web from the very beginning.

Also, I will find if very very hard to ever trust Microsoft to give me real, unbiased, un-pre-purchased search results. Google is equally a stockowner owned, megacorp, but (so far) they have shown a spirit of remaining honest and aboveboard. Microsoft definitely does not have this kind of rep ...

Search for Search!

[abb3w]

The contrast is more extreme if you feed "search engine" into one or the other. The results from AltaVista fall in between in quality, leaving aside the sponsored links.

But who searches for "rabbit"

[SvendTofte]

Sure, "rabbit" is a common term, but does that mean, that real users will actually search for it? Maybe the algorithm relies on more information, such as "rabbit breeding", or whatever. It's like searching for "computers", a virtually useless search. Creating a algorithm that works on common input, instead of ANY input, to improve results, might not be such a dumb thing. But who knows.

It's also likely, that the search returns so many hits, but they're all values so low, that no one stands out. Much like how the new MySQL searching works.

It's of course also possible that the algorithm is crap.

Ummm...

[ajdecon]

Those searches worked for me, all fairly well. For the distros, all but Mandrake and Gentoo returned the main page first--and the first result for Gentoo is their store.

I thought what set Linux users apart was that they avoided using FUD?

Re:Ummm...

[Tyreth]

I think the results have changed - so that when the poster wrote this, he was getting the results he claimed. I'm not seeing any of these strange no results found messages that others have. Not sure why, but it seems like they've fixed up a lot of the missing entries. p. Nevertheless, I still find the returned results to be far less useful than google.

Wahaahaaa!

[MoreDruid]

from this page:

Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links are functioning properly. If your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index your site effectively, and users may not be able to reach all of your pages. For more information about correct HTML syntax, see the HTML 4.01 Specification.

Validation by W3.org for www.microsoft.com and another for their new search engine

I wonder if they sent an internal e-mail to all their webmasters...

My log says no chance at all

[xcomm]

When going to the search engine section in awstats from my web server I see something very obvious. If something changes Googlebot is there after 2-3 minutes (thanks to adsense). Also Googlebot is back most frequently over the day and with a much higher amount of readed pages than all others. Yahoo seems to be in second place but much behind Googlebot. Don't ask which low frequency M$ has.
To my point of view this means that Google has a cutting edge amount of GNU/Linux servers (100000 or 300000+ or ?)running to be able to do this. Nobody else seems to be able to catch them in this and at leat not M$ with boxes running under M$ crap systems. We have here some funny oximoron for for Bill and Steve as long as they use there own crap. :-)

It's very accurate...

[Hoarse Whisperer]

Enter in a single "*" and the first result is www.google.com - so if I'm looking for everything, that's the place to go?

Re:You need viable weapons to participate in a war

[Dirtside]

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).

How about "BSOD"?

First try - much better than Google

[LanceUppercut]

I tried to search for 'filip 600' - a model RC sailplane I'm flying now, and new MS engine came up with several directly relevant pages that I have never seen on Google. So far - extremely impressive!

Try Again...

[Nailer]

Results 1-15 containing "wikipedia"...

Search for "msn search is evil"

[abhi_beckert]

first result: google.com

Re:xfree86 vs xfree85

[RedLaggedTeut]

Well it sort of makes sense:

x as in x-rated
free as in free prn
8 as in a boobs
6 as in sex (or 69)

x96 - the site for couples that don't have sex

Re:Technologies..

[Tobias Luetke]

This is because the server was configured badly. Opera and Firefox do the right thing and assume binary. IE defaults to display.

To fix this the server owner has to set the correct mime mode for the document.

UPDATE: Seacrh for "XFree86"

[The Angry Mick]

Looks like they've made some adjustments.