WSJ article about MSN vs. Google

MSN discouraged publication of adverse research results

[econman]

The WSJ online has an interesting article (subscription required) about MSN's efforts to compete with Google.

A few of the items I found particularly intriguing:

"A study... concluded that more consumers found MSN's search results to be less relevant to their queries following the switchover...

...Yusuf Mehdi, a Microsoft senior vice president... [disputes that conclusion, however]

"a paper drafted for Chairman Bill Gates earlier this year... stated that MSN had failed "to produce better and more innovative products than Google" and was engaged in "an expensive game of catchup."

"Microsoft dropped to No. 5 after the search technology switch, compared with No. 3 before the switch, [accordinging to an unpublished study] by Keynote Systems Inc....

"After getting a preview of the results of the research ... Microsoft requested that Keynote not make the results public..."

[crobb305]

They have a looooooooooooooong way to go to even use the word "compete". MSN is full of pages that have gotten to the top of the serps by spamming bulletin boards. No filtering, and the serps are stale.

Sad to say, but they don't hold a candle next to G after all the hype they made prior to launching their "new" and "better" search engine.