csnet - 3:42 am on Jan 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

MSN beta continues to be the worst search engine I have ever used, an "honor" bestowed upon Google in the past. Now, if MSN releases this garbage in January as some are saying, then MSN beta will officially take the #1 spot as the absolute worst SE ever.

Because it is a violation of the TOS to link my sites or the sites of anything to which I have any interest, I will post the following keywords, so you MSN beta boosters can see for yourself how brain dead is this MSN beta.

In the MSN beta and in all the other popular SEs, such as Yahoo, MSN (not beta) and others, search for:

Korbel wine

Korbel has been around for about a hundred years. It has a domain of www.korbel.com. While www.korbel.com is on the page 1 SERPs of most SEs, it ranks on page 2 of the MSN beta. Why? Because "wine", a second keyword, was added to the search. This resulted in matches deeper in the Korbel web site, which apparently this junk MSN beta is loathe to "contemplate".

This is not nitpicking. It is a major flaw. Sites that provide content on multiple subjects are penalized by this simpleton SE that is the MSN beta. A site that provides content on multiple subjects will naturally organize the site into sub folders and sub-sub folders as the content becomes more specific.

There are literally hundred of sites that appear on page one in all the other SEs that do not appear anywhere in the MSN beta because the content page is not in the root folder

Most SE engines are not so stupid as to believe that "drill down" is some kind of mortal sin. That is a specious argument anyway, because, after all, this in the Internet, and hundreds of other sites that may link to a sub-sub folder do so because that is where the content exists.

As I said before, those that think this MSN beta is the Holy Grail should stop and consider whether anyone will actually use it. This is a massive technical failure, a perfect example of what happens when poorly enumerated requirements are released to a programming team.

Someone higher up in Microsoft needs to be aware of the problems this junk will bring to MSN, and put a stop to it before all the glad handers who think this garbage is "ready for prime time" foist this on the general public.