MSN - New Engine? Options

[ILoveJackDaniels]

http://search.msn.com has a new front page, by the looks of it. And as Mike Davidson rather nicely spotted, it's really badly coded.

Has anyone had a chance to have much of a play with it yet? The searches I made all seemed to have similar (to worse) results to Google.

[bragadocchio]

I saw this page referred to as a sneak peek at their new search technology.

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/

It's a limited time beta, with a warning that it "will be available for a short time."

They also mention that it will be back after receiving feedback, and incorporating that into the mix.

There are little icons next to search results that you can click upon and provide feedback to MSN about if you are so inclined.

[Ron Carnell]

The new search page Dave references is, essentially, a UI design change. Simple. Clean. With a much clearer separation between paid and organic results. A few new tools, though I haven't had time (or inclination, I guess) to play with them yet. The index still comes from Yahoo, however, although without paid inclusion.

Bill's link, from my understanding, leads to non-Yahoo results. Last I heard, MSN had over a billion pages indexed, so they're definitely getting there. Personally, I hope they take their time. My sites, overall, rank better with Yahoo supplied results than with the new MSN result.

[Respree]

Read an article in the LA Times this morning about MSN search. They're trying to build up some credibility in the SE arena and close the distant third gap they currently enjoy (or don't enjoy). Apparently the strategy is to have search run on their new OS (Longhorn), which will be introduced in 2006, so if their new search is a success, the stronger their credibility will be with the upcoming Longhorn search. They're investing $100 million in their new search technology and they expect to be substantially completed in about a year.

They're currently sacrificing ad revenue and trying to emulate Google's more simplified look in their attempt to close the currently wide gap and better compete with Y! and G.