Forum Moderators: mack
The Microsoft-owned division launched a test site for MSN Search on Tuesday that omits banner advertisements and a large navigation column for the MSN network, freeing up more room on the page to display query results. The new site also says that it can display results 65 percent faster than before.
I believe this is the url for the site. [beta.search.msn.com]
On the advanced page [beta.search.msn.com] you'll also options to limit your search to the following formats:
HTML
PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
[edited by: rubble88 at 10:04 pm (utc) on Feb. 11, 2003]
The input box is still far too short though.
Nice to see they are getting an interest in faster display of their results -> that was much quicker than before.
[webmasterworld.com...]
[people.opera.com...]
[theregister.co.uk...]
That's annoying, because this description uses a specific word we always avoid using when describing ourselves! I think I'll write to MSN to complain. I'll let yall know if I get any response.
The text reads all the way across the screen. The default font is larger. Less clutter. Better than AV, which has way too many text link ads.
This looks almost as good as Google (dare I say it!).
Let's not confuse looks with relevance though. :)
The search results for some of the terms I follow are similar but not the same as the results on the regular MSN search.
It seems the Beta is using the newest Ink Database with adult filter on while the regular Msn Search is using adult filter off.
It's amazing to see what gets caught in the filter.
<edited>Corrected findings</edited>
[edited by: Big_Balou at 7:36 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2003]
What they need to do now, is DUMP looksmart and get the Serps from somewhere else. Until this happens I will continue to boycott MSN.
My 2cents.
What I don't understand about MSN is why they don't go to an AlltheWeb or something to replace Inktomi already. Yahoo now has so much information on MSN searches due to their Inktomi ownership. That has to be worth something to Yahoo.
[microsoft.com...]
Verizon has been conducting an aggressive outsourced telemarketing campaign for several months to their existing dialup customers to get them to upgrade to the DSL service.
MSN/Verizon will be directly competing at the ISP level with Yahoo/SBC. Verizon gets regular phone service customers, as does SBC, who bill combined with local phone service bills in a lot of cases, so there's a large share of captive audience there.
It's hard to believe that at least one of them won't be making a major change.
[edited by: Marcia at 8:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2003]
The only difference I see is less banners (yet). Expect it to be the same thing once out of the beta.
I also love the "More people use MSN Search than any other search service" tagline. What was that saying about "Figures never lie..."?
I was surprised with that too. typical marketing spin treating their customers like fools.
The tagline is actually meaningless. How do you define "Search service"? How do you define "use"?
Im sure if you add in all IE users who by default "use" their MSN search even if just for the occassional auto-msn query and add all their partners and maybe internal search they may be able to defend their statement, but it is clearly incorrect if you interpret the "common usage" of such terms in their tagline.
We all know MSN is a popular search service, but trying to imply they are more popular than yahoo or google undermines their credibility further.
heh, I noticed that too. I see some sites in our keyword category that have changed numerous times since the description was written. In fact a couple are not even the same type of company any more.
Danny Sullivan did some work on the number of search hours on each engine and Google came out well ahead of the others.
On the other hand, my MSN email is still broken, even after having accumulated over 15 trouble tickets and persuing it for 2 months.
That does not give me a lot of faith.
