Microsoft to release enhanced search-engine beta

IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. today will begin testing an enhanced version of its search engine, which will feature a new image search service, a redesigned user interface, new tools to refine query results and a new name: Windows Live Search.

This beta version of the search engine will be open for testing at the Live.com portal, the home page of the Live-branded initiative Microsoft launched in November to boost its software-as-a-service offerings.

Windows Live Search will be in beta phase for several months, and when it exits testing it will replace MSN Search and become the search engine of Microsoft's MSN.com Web portal, said Justin Osmer, MSN senior product manager. "This is the next generation of our search engine," he said.

At that point, Windows Live Search will have all of MSN Search's functionality, plus enhancements and new features. The test search engine will have new tools to organize and preview search results, and it will give users the option to view all results on a single page, eliminating the need to jump from page to page to go through the list.

Windows Live Search's new image search engine will let users determine the size of the photo thumbnails and to view full-size images without navigating away from the results page. Windows Live Search will also let people create "macros" to save queries and search parameters, and share them. MSN Search now licenses technology from a third party, Picsearch, for its image search.

"Conceptually, the changes all sound pretty good. The test will be the execution. We'll see how everything works," said Joe Wilcox, a JupiterResearch analyst.

Microsoft's MSN Search is in a distant third place in search engine usage market share. In January, Google Inc. ranked first in the U.S., with 41.4% of all queries, followed by Yahoo Inc. with 28.7% and MSN with 13.7%, according to comScore Networks Inc.

Still, Microsoft believes these are still the early days of the search engine market and that it will be able to catch up to Google, Osmer said. "We see this as a long-term problem to solve. A lot can be done in search to make it a better experience."

To say that the search market is in its infancy is highly debatable, Wilcox said, adding that Internet search tools existed even before the development of Web browsers; what's relatively new is the revenue tied to search engines. However, it's also incorrect to say that the game is over and Google has won, he said.