Microsoft cuts ribbon for Live search services

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 13 Sep 2006 at 17:34

Microsoft has officially unwrapped its Live search services, and installed its home-grown search engine as the search facility for its MSN portfolio.

Snapping off the beta tag on Live search, which went into beta only last March, allows Redmond to unify the search service of its Live.com and MSN online offerings around a single engine.

'If you love a stand alone Search page go to the â€Search only†page at live.com and use that as your jumping off point to the Web. If you love RSS feeds and customizing a Web experience uniquely for you, use the Personalized page at Live.com and if you want search paired with a great programmed content experience head on over to MSN.com.' said Ken Moss, General Manager Live Search.

Live.com is now official in 47 countries, with a mixed feature set. The US version for example boasts a beta of the QnA service to rival the reputation-based Yahoo! Answers and to a lesser extent Google's paid-for Google Answers.

The image search service is also now a fully Microsoft-built offering with controls to change the thumbnail size and amount of information displayed for results on the fly.

Live Local search is also available now in the US and the UK, stripped of its beta tag. Although it is powered by Microsoft's answer to Google Earth, Virtual Earth, aerial photography is not as extensive. It still boasts directions and business locations among other services.

And finally video search also makes an appearance in beta, although at the time of writing it was blighted by some unspecified problem and only sported the message: 'This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon.'

'The launch of Live Search is a significant milestone for our services business, with our core search and monetisation platform ready for prime time for MSN and Windows Live as well as for partners through syndication deals,' said Christopher Payne, corporate VP of Live Search at Microsoft. 'We now have the base to weave search through our services in ways that bring value to customers. This is just the beginning. We look forward to continued investment in search to deliver services that bring new levels of control and personalisation to the Web experience.'