Microsoft opens doors on new MSN search beta

 

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By Steve Malone

Posted on 10 Nov 2004 at 15:56

As we reported yesterday Microsoft is releasing a beta version of its much-trailed search engine. The new search now contains some five billion pages gathered and indexed by Microsoft's own technology rather than using databases from Yahoo and LookSmart as it has in the past.

The new search retains the clean design borrowed from Google and early versions of Yahoo! and the structure will be familiar to existing users of MSN Search. Around the new database and index, Microsoft has added a number of new features. The new version offers a new 'images' section alongside the existing web and news databases - other databases in the existing search such as shopping and stock quotes have been dropped from the beta. Microsoft says that more will be included as the product matures.

One exception are the Encarta results. Instead of being a separate category, they are now included inline at the top of the page as the result of specific queries such as 'what is the capital of Finland?'

The new engine contains a slew of functions aimed at making search easier to use, many of which are already included by Google, such as definitions and calculations. One new function which Microsoft is proud of is the Search Builder. This is a tool resembling a graphic equaliser allowing users to adjust their own rankings by setting the relative levels of relevancy, popularity and date.

'At the moment, advanced search frightens people to death,' said David Graham, Microsoft UK's Search Business Manager. 'The aim is to take some of the mystery out of advanced search.'

In order to prevent results listings from being clogged up with content from one particular domain, results are now clustered so that searchers can drill down if they want to or move on otherwise.

One database that has been dropped from MSN Search is the directory listings. Previously these were included as part of the search results provided by the Yahoo! rankings. Microsoft is now saying that all results will, in future, be algorithmic. Microsoft is making much of the fact that it now has five billion pages indexed although it still leaves it some way behind the eight billion or so that Google claims to have in its database.

Once the company is satisfied with its search, it plans to drop the Yahoo! databases altogether. 'When we take the product out of beta all traffic on all Microsoft sites will use the new engine,' said Graham. Microsoft is not giving any dates on when the finished product will be rolled out. All Graham would say was 'soon'.

However, the Yahoo! connection won't be severed entirely, at least not yet. MSN will continue to use Overture to provide the sponsored ads to accompany pages of search results.

'We've put an enormous amount of investment - about $100 million - into the search engine,' said Graham. We are very proud that we have achieved in two years what it has taken other companies eight years and it will only get better and better,' he promised.

UPDATE: MSN Search (beta) is now live at beta.search.msn.com and national variations, .co.uk etc.