Microsoft tests revamped Windows Live search engine
09 March, 2006
SEATTLE (March 09 2006): Microsoft Corp plans to start testing a revamped Web search engine on Tuesday that includes new features aimed at closing gaps with Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.
Windows Live Search is one of the central applications for Microsoft`s strategic shift to unify the company`s Web-based software and services, such as e-mail, instant messaging and computer virus detection, at its Windows Live site.
The new features highlighted in Windows Live Search allow users to display all query results on one page without moving from page to page or to adjust the amount of information displayed from each search result with a slider bar.
"It isn`t always about hunt and fetch," said Yusuf Medhi, senior vice president in charge of strategy, marketing and search development at MSN, Microsoft`s Internet arm. "People are getting less and less satisfied with search."
Microsoft trails Web search leader Google and number-two Yahoo in the US search market with an 11 percent share. Together, Google and Yahoo processed 70 percent of all queries in January, according to Neilsen//NetRatings.
Under Microsoft`s "beta" or general test preview, Windows Live Search will run queries on live.com, the company`s site for Windows Live that allows user to customise news, weather and other content.
Once the new search engine is officially launched sometime around the summer, Windows Live Search will replace MSN Search on Microsoft`s main content Web site, MSN.com, the company said. Windows Live is also still in test form.
Windows Live Search will also allow users to save specific parameters to limit queries to certain Web sites and then share those "macros" with other people with similar interests.
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