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Archive for the ‘MSN Search Engine’ Category

MOVE HEATS UP RIVALRY WITH GOOGLE AND YAHOO

Stepping up its efforts to compete directly with Google and Yahoo, Microsoft’s Internet division said Tuesday that it plans to enter the lucrative search-engine-advertising business.

Microsoft said it is building its own advertising network to display ads alongside its search-engine results.

Microsoft is being conservative in its roll-out of the new system, dubbed “MSN adCenter.” The company will launch a pilot of the program in France and Singapore in the next six months, said Adam Sohn, director of global sales and marketing. He gave no timeline for a U.S. launch.

SOURCE: Mercury News

Bloomberg news reports that Microsoft is going to unleash a new pay per click program, similar to that of Googles adwords. 

MSN right now is still using Overtures pay per click sponsored ads and have a contract with them through June 2006. The article states that this new MSN pay per click will not be fully ready for 6-12 months.

Andy Beal of the Search Engine lowdown has a good post today about the new MSN search engine and how many in the search engine community consider it a flop and "that MSN Search’s "marketing and attempts to connect just suck" and "my gut feeling is that they’ve blown it".

Andy Comments : Come off it! They only launched it a few weeks ago and they have 5 years of catching-up to do. I know for a fact that they are still working on refining the search engine and have efforts to reach out to the search marketing community. It may take a few months for them to gain traction, but don’t write them off in the first inning (remember the Red Sox vs the Yankees?).

I would agree with Andy here and I think so far that the MSN search engine is better then it was. I think it has a long ways to go to beat Google but I wouldnt count Microsoft out here at all.   

I think the results of the new search engine are better and I like a lot of the new features it has, not to mention that most all my sites are very well ranked!   I like the new feature at MSN where you can ask it a question, like "Who is the president?" or "What is the NRA?" and get the correct answer.   Google is still king but MSN and Yahoo are gaining.

Picsearch announced today that it has entered into an agreement to supply the new MSN Search service with image search services. Picsearch already provides the pictures seen when you conduct an image search at Ask Jeeves or Lycos Europe. The addition of MSN Search, is a big coup for the company.

Nils Andersson, CEO of Picsearch, said "I am very excited that Picsearch’s technology will be used to find images on the Web for this worldwide service. MSN shares our desire to be at the forefront of the net search market. Picsearch will continue providing the highest quality image search service in the world. New features are always being developed."

Adding a comprehensive database of images is just one of many crucial steps MSN Search must take, if they are to compete with Google and Yahoo.

"The new MSN Search service offers a large index to help consumers quickly and easily find the information that is of interest to them," said Justin Osmer, product manager at MSN. "MSN is proud to team up with Picsearch to offer a vast index of high-quality images that are relevant to our consumers’ queries."

SOURCE: Search Engine Lowdown

Bill Gates’ Microsoft in "Battle" with Google
ABC’s Peter Jennings tonight interviewed Microsoft founder, Bill Gates. Mr. Gates offers his thoughts on a number of topics, including the challenges it faces trying to compete with Google.

Smiling, Gates tells Jennings that companies like Google and Apple keep MS on their toes. He says they’re "fantastic" competitors.

"Well, I have a meeting today with our people doing search. And that’s an area where Google has got out in front, does a very good job. We’re sort of the David vs. Goliath in that (chuckles) particular battle so we’ll have fun talking to them about their progress."

"I think we’re actually one of the few companies that can say with credibility that we’ll give Google some competition. And that’s great for everyone."

Microsoft Announces New Internet Explorer
Susan Kuchinskas looks at the recent announcement by Microsoft, that they will be launching IE 7.0 soon. She questions whether the new browser will include an integrated MSN Search toolbar.

There’s another good reason why Microsoft should do more than add security to IE 7.0, according to JupiterResearch analyst Joe Wilcox: Search rivals Yahoo and Google are both rumored to be working on their own branded browsers…A browser can be a powerful delivery mechanism for searchers, Wilcox said. "To change search services, you just type in a new URL. But when you get attached to one browser, you’ll stick with it," he said.

MSN has launched a new search engine and so far, it seems much better then the older version of MSN.  It has many new features and produces very good results for most of the searches I ran.