Marcia - 9:27 pm on Jun 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

This

Gates blamed search's shortcomings on its keyword-based approach, and argued that natural language and contextual semantic approaches will be the next leap forward.

is the logical direction for them to be going. And they've got some people on board widely published in that area, including language differences. It's a natural for them because other of their intended search applications won't be in a hyperlinked environment.

Coming this fall.

Why can't it be rolling by Fall, in time for Holiday shopping? It doesn't necessarily have to roll out full-grown. They've already said it won't be, but will be on a limited basis at first when it's in Beta. Why not start with their properties like MSDN or MSN Shopping?