Microsoft to release new search technology

news report about a "new search proto-type"

[Namaste]

[netscape.com.com...]

article talks about Microsoft's search reasearch dept. This is their 3rd search engine related press release this month...they seem to be getting ready to release their own engine VERY SOON.

[Oaf357]

Hmm... maybe that's why I saw this in my logs today:

131.107.163.47 - - [18/Apr/2003:23:29:22 -0500] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 409 "-" "MicrosoftPrototypeCrawler (please report obnoxious behavior to [e-mail])"
131.107.163.47 - - [18/Apr/2003:23:29:24 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 11203 "-" "MicrosoftPrototypeCrawler (please report obnoxious behavior to [e-mail])"

I thought it was spam but the IP address belongs to Microsoft.

Hmm...

[daroz]

Still active... Sorta. (Only pulled my Robots file...)

131.107.163.49 - - [19/Apr/2003:08:18:13 -0400] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 147 "-" "MicrosoftPrototypeCrawler (please report obnoxious behavior to [e-mail])"

[jeremy goodrich]

Wonder if they will pull an IBM and dump the project for some unknown reason after spidering everything under the sun, twice?

And I still find it hard to believe that they are using a 'real' hotmail address for the crawler - they should make it something more professional.

Though with the amount of hype going into it, the number of press releases, and the news about their search department having 70 staffers now, it does seem like they are serious about doing something.

[jomaxx]

I 403'ed "MicrosoftPrototypeCrawler" last week after it slammed my site and ignored my robots.txt exclusions. I assume they're still getting the bugs out at this point, but maybe I'll give the robot limited access just in case MSN goes live with this sooner than I expect.

[jomaxx]

P.S. I loved this new Windows feature mentioned in the article...
>> A prototype application called "Stuff I've Seen," for instance, will store
>> every screen that has popped up on a given computer monitor for a year.

That really really sounds like something I'd want to disable.

[Oaf357]

I'll be turning that off too.

[craig1972]

How can I "403" this thingie? Can I do it somehow in my HTACCESS file? I was hit by this thingie too!

[mcavic]

And I still find it hard to believe that they are using a 'real' hotmail address for the crawler - they should make it something more professional.

I think the email address is fine, but running the crawler on an IP that doesn't resolve is a big no-no for me. :)