Finally here

Entering new battle, Microsoft launches own search engine

U.S. National - AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Microsoft launched its own Internet search engine "built from the ground up," entering a new market dominated by rivals Google and Yahoo.


The new search service, part of a redesigned MSN home page, uses the software giant's own technology, eliminating the underlying search provided up to now by Yahoo.


Microsoft said the search engine, which was unveiled in a test version last November, is now available in 25 markets and 10 languages.


"Our mission at Microsoft is to use the power of software to solve our customers' toughest problems," Microsoft chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) said in a statement on the website.


"Searching the Internet today is a challenge, and it is estimated that nearly half of customers' complex questions go unanswered. That's why we're proud of our new MSN Search service."


The company said the new service "delivers more-relevant results, instant answers to specific questions and a collection of tools that give Internet users greater control in targeting and refining searches."


"We're committed to continuous improvement in the speed, precision and ease of use of our search service," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of MSN information services. "This built-from-the-ground-up version of MSN Search provides an infrastructure that enables us to rapidly innovate and give consumers precisely the information they're looking for, no matter where it's located."


Reacting to the effort, Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineWatch.com said the MSN Search service "is good and a welcomed new 'search voice' in the space," but added: "It does not make a massive leap beyond what's offered by Google, Yahoo or Ask Jeeves, the other three major search companies that provide their own voices of what's deemed relevant on the Web."


Analysts say Microsoft's move is aimed at keeping Explorer and Windows as the main technologies used for the Internet, and heading off migrations to other platforms. It also puts Microsoft in the thick of a lucrative market in which advertisers pay for "sponsored" search results that appear alongside traditional algorithmic search results.


Joe Wilcox at Jupiter Research said the launch is essentially an acknowledgement by Microsoft that it is coming late to some aspects of the Internet.


"Considering how long Internet search has been around and established providers' success extending its utility, I find surprising (Gates's) dismissal of the progress to date," Wilcox said.


"Whether there should be a search war or not is debatable. But Bill's statements lead me to the conclusion that Microsoft essentially has embarked on one."

[Titan]

will be interesting to see if it makes a dent in google or yahoo the dominant players and also well have to see who gets the SEo right for it and figures it out first

[JR]

Originally posted by Titan@Feb 1 2005, 11:13 AM
will be interesting to see if it makes a dent in google or yahoo the dominant players and also well have to see who gets the SEo right for it and figures it out first

There is no "dominant player" in the world that Microsoft has failed to put a dent in when they applied themselves to do so.

[Mike AI]

MSN is overtures largest supplier of traffic. Microsoft is already a major player in the biz.

[Inabon]

well one thing is for sure they seem to have a nice XXX filter turned on by default check settings. i have tried a couple of keywords i know brign you lots of porn and i get very little if no porn without touching the settings on the search engine.

[Titan]

yeah pedro i tried out some simple searchs on it today and found the same ..

try playboy for one and found a spanish site that was all text that mentioned playboy .. not sure how relevent that is lol