Microsoft's MSN plans new search engine in July

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Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that a new engine for its MSN Search service will start up in July, another step in its plan to challenge Google Inc.'s pole position as the Web's top search destination. As part of that upcoming shift, MSN -- the Internet arm of the world's largest software maker -- said it will change the way that it displays text advertisements that are listed alongside search results. Paid listings, or advertisements that piggyback onto search results, have become a hugely profitable component of the search industry, estimated to be worth $2 billion in 2004.

Instead of including paid listings within search results, which critics say results in misleading search results, MSN said it will display paid listings separately at the top and to the right of search results generated by its search engine. "We're really close to finding out what really strikes consumers as the most relevant search results," said Karen Redetzki, an MSN product manager. Redetzki said MSN will list three paid listings at the top of every search result, of which at least two will be advertisements sold directly by MSN.

News source: Reuters

Bug fixes:

Fixed crash when closing history window with large history.

IE was always used as the default browser if IE was open.

Added option to set outgoing port range.

Fixed several memory leaks.

Improved proxy handling.

Rare crash on opening options.

AutoNA was not set correctly when Away was set.

Visibility list did not list all users.

Icons in URL and message contact menus didn't update when icons changed.

Reduce CPU usage in file transfer dialogs (fewer screen updates).

Many other bug fixes.

AIM: Unable to save "Only reply to users in your contact list" option.

ICQ: Failed to send or receive files from ICQ 2003b.

ICQ: Fixed a number of smaller memory leaks.

ICQ: Contact e-mail info was not displayed correctly.

ICQ: Failed to retrieve user details during certain circumstances.

ICQ: URL messages could disappear when sent through a Direct Connection.

ICQ: Nick name was not deleted from server list when local nick name was deleted.

ICQ: Server side contacts could reappear after being deleted if they were on the visible/invisible lists.

ICQ: Changing status while connecting had no effect.

ICQ: A bunch of other fixes the CVS change log if you want the big list.

Jabber: Should offline all chat rooms when go invisible (because they are actually offline).

Jabber: Miranda won't exit if more than one group chat windows are left open.

Jabber: Wrong filename encoding in file sending (signed/unsigned problem).

Jabber: Crash on connect/disconnect caused by stale contacts associated with an unknown protocol.

Jabber: Deleting group chat temporary contact unintentionally closes the chat room.

Jabber: Presence is broadcast to chat room that has denied our access.

Jabber: Graceful exit while Miranda shutdown in the middle of file transfer.

MSN: A port remained opened after the file transfer cancel.

MSN: if a contact list is very long, all contacts could be shown in the Offline mode

MSN: When you set your own nickname with spaces, it appears in the options dialog URL-encoded (with %20 instead of a space char).

MSN: Opened switchboard sessions weren't closed when you go offline without closing Miranda.

MSN: File sending does not require talking anymore.

MSN: Contacts with leading digits in the e-mail were not processed properly.

MSN: Many other bug fixes.

Enhancements:

New user is typing API (supported by ICQ/MSN/Jabber).

Messaging module moved to a plugin with many UI changes (SRMM).

Auto Away can now set protocols away if the workstation becomes locked.

Improved button control (bitmap support, flat button support).

Added options to disable systray icon flashing and adjusting blink time.

Default icon packs are automatically loaded from disk if they exist.

Added report bug menu item.

Many other enhancements.

AIM: Added user search capability.

AIM: Send messages to group chat users by double clicking name.

AIM: Added file receive support.

ICQ: Added support for sending and receiving Typing Notifications.

ICQ: Now accepts messages formatted in Unicode (note: this won’t solve the problem with displaying messages with multiple char sets).

IRC: Contacts on the contact list.

IRC: Host masks.

IRC: Ignore system.

IRC: Channel manager.

Jabber: Manual registration to Jabber services.

Jabber: Can automatically remove contacts not in roster.

Jabber: Invite and accept invitation to a group chat.

Jabber: Support composing message event (message typing notification).

Jabber: Send full JID (with resource name) when appropriate.

MSN: 'User is typing' support added.

MSN: "Invite to chat" contact menu item is added.

MSN: 'block/unlock' feature is integrated with Options->Status->Visible.

MSN: New gateway support.

#1 Alistero on 21 Mar 2004 - 00:46

this is good for us, google will become more serious about indexing sites on a constant basis.
The only real change was a promotional stunt.
^^ http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=17686

(5 replies) #2 Simon- on 21 Mar 2004 - 01:28

MSN is such a bias search engine, for example searching for 'Neowin' on it brings up a Neowin article about MSN as the first result, whereas Google doesn't even bring themselves up as number one for 'Search Engine'

#2.1 tomaras on 21 Mar 2004 - 01:51

Here's the link to the results I got when I searched for Neowin.

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?srch=105&FORM=AS5&q=neowin

Where is the MSN article you mention? The first result was www.neowin.com?

#2.2 Simon- on 21 Mar 2004 - 01:59

I see a Neowin article about MSN:

QUOTE

Neowin.net - MSN iLoo Q&As
MSN product manager answers questions about maintenance, security, and software for Microsoft's new iLoo product, which adds a Web-enabled computer to a toilet.
www.neowin.net/comments.php?category=main&id=10744

Neowin.com???

#2.3 bolufromthesoo on 21 Mar 2004 - 02:54

QUOTE (#2.0)

Wow! I can't believe how true this is. I'm sticking to Google

. Microsoft will have tough competition but search engine users will beneifit either way...right?

#2.4 mram on 21 Mar 2004 - 13:08

And you're basing all your searches upon the old engine.

Try with the new. Or not. But don't post in this thread claiming (incorrectly) that the new search engine is flawed, when you're not using it.

#2.5 Simon- on 22 Mar 2004 - 09:45

you're flawed, not once did I say that the new search engine was bias/flawed, because as you said, I'm not using it.

(1 reply) #3 demorgoron on 21 Mar 2004 - 04:49

sticking to Google

#3.1 mipra on 21 Mar 2004 - 21:59

me too

(1 reply) #4 bReD on 21 Mar 2004 - 04:51

unless MS changes their main page logo for Gaston Julia's, Einstien's, or Michelangelo's birthdays, ill stick with google

#4.1 mram on 21 Mar 2004 - 13:09

I'd take substance over style. Way to rate a search engine by a graphic.

(1 reply) #5 Garry on 21 Mar 2004 - 05:04

Companies shouldn't try to just 'compete' with Google, they should learn from them. According to a poll over at macpolls.com, 95% of users use Google as their primary search engine. To me, this suggests Google is doing something right.

I like Google because it's fast, plain and simple - and it gives me exactly what I want. MSN is a minefield. There's stuff I don't want or need all over the place! In fact, the only company I know of that seems to have taken a hint from Google is AltaVista. AltaVista used to be a huge search engine, back in the day, along with Lycos. But during the .com boom, AltaVista became one of those horrible 'portal' sites, like msn.com is today. It seems now though that AltaVista has gone back to a plain, simple and nice user interface. Now if only the search results were better ....

#5.1 dreamthief on 21 Mar 2004 - 05:34

I think most companies know that. Take ALtavista as you said, it definitely has changed. How bout Teoma?

Yahoo takes the cake, cause even the Google labs, they have one some lab thing. Only thing they should do is, get a better more efficient search engine developed. Then the rest i think would just fall in.

(4 replies) #6 Trade Wind on 21 Mar 2004 - 07:56

Most of these comments in here are based on the -current- search service that MSN is running. In the last year, Microsoft has increased the size of the search team from just 25, to over 300. (!) They are well aware of what Google is doing right, and are working very hard to pull out all the stops in July so that users to the new MSN Search will see fast, relevant results in a easy to understand interface. It will be interesting to see what they have been able to come up with in terms of their own spidering, indexing & relevancy capabilities. The new MSN Search will also expand into areas like live searchspy results, news, images, video, blogs/RSS and combined online/offline spheres. The MSN Search team will be highly competitive with Google and the new Yahoo!.

fwiw, this doesn't exist in the beta site @ http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=neowin&FORM=SMCRT; Neowin.net is the first return as the web directory is junked in the beta.

As for Google/Yahoo! labs, see http://sandbox.msn.com.

#6.1 noll3095 on 21 Mar 2004 - 17:47

Huh? Both search.msn.com and beta.search.msn.com look the same and return the same results from searching for neowin. Including the Web Directory with the iLoo listed first.

#6.2 Trade Wind on 22 Mar 2004 - 00:20

FWIW, if you are not using IE, you won't get the beta service.

#6.3 noll3095 on 22 Mar 2004 - 01:01

Fair enough, so I load IE and use the beta service (which still looks exactly the same) and searching for 'neowin' shows the exact thing. The iLoo story in the Web Directory is there as number 1.

#6.4 Trade Wind on 22 Mar 2004 - 01:43

Odd...

I get this as the first listing:

Neowin.net - Where unprofessional journalism looks better
Windows News and Reviews. ... Main News, Welcome to Neowin.net, would you like to register or login ...
www.neowin.net

#7 warwagon on 21 Mar 2004 - 09:00

Well might be good if their main search page was as simple looking as googles... I like how plain google looks. I hate how Bloated and clustered msn's page looks

#8 SaLiVa on 21 Mar 2004 - 11:05

Well Google has a nice name thats easy to remember. Thats the first thing that comes to mind when wanting to search for something on the net. Try "google" it. Its a nice catch phrase. Dunno why Google is making it such a big deal out of it though. And yeah, the page is cleaner looking. Besides - Microsoft will probably find some way to fporce people to use their search engine instead of googles. Just a matter of time really. You put in a wrong site name and walah! MSN page comes up :| A bit unexpected.

(1 reply) #9 b3n on 21 Mar 2004 - 11:18

microsoft have realised there not number one at something!!!!!

#9.1 apa1exakis on 21 Mar 2004 - 17:18

Microsoft is well aware that its not number one in a lot of product markets. I dont know how you came to make this statement. They know they were never number one in the overall server market and have worked very hard to gain. This holds true for a number of markets. CRM market is the same, it was the same for the Browsers as well in the past. They are very well aware when they arent among the top and they work hard to get there. They are by no means oblivious

(2 replies) #10 Atlas on 21 Mar 2004 - 19:21

Microsoft is just wasting more money. This is why I am not a customer. THey use the money they make and sue companies I like (Lindows, although I would never use their software). Or litigating and being a monopoly.

#10.1 Trade Wind on 22 Mar 2004 - 00:25

I completely disagree. Unlike some sectors in which Microsoft invests, MSN Search is the most profitable segment of the MSN business. It will definitely pay off in spades to re-invest back into this business. Besides the fact that Microsoft, unlike their ivals, rarely litigates with its competitors; Microsoft customers have a lot to gain in seeing Microsoft bring their considerable R&D brainpower to the issue of search.

I think it is fun to see so many people doubting Microsoft's efforts in search. You guys don't really have an idea of how much they are putting into their search teams. They won't hit a home run on their first time out, but I'm putting my money on MSN for the whole 9 innings.

#10.2 Atlas on 22 Mar 2004 - 07:21

They are only investing so much time and effort so they can control search listings.

Block out browsers that are not IE.

Block out results that they don't want (Linux, Apple, etc)

Of course they can't start out like that, but once they are #1 they will.

(3 replies) #11 Slacker on 21 Mar 2004 - 20:42

They have a long way to go to beat google... For one, Google is very fast when loading pages simply because it has less ads and pictures over it... I don't want to be waisting time waiting to search results to load. The way I see it, we have made enough progress that searching for web pages should be the easy and quick part to browsing web pages. I personally won't use a search engine that tags ads at the top of my screen when I pick a site... This is as bad as spyware or Kazaa ads now... Google give me quick results and much of the clutter is moved away from the screen presenting me with only the information that I need. Yahoo is also very good IMO

#11.1 tomaras on 22 Mar 2004 - 02:13

I'm just curious where all the ads and clutter are on www.search.msn.com? I don't see it? It searches and loads just as fast as google for all practical puposes. I personally find that I get more relevant searches from MSN. I do alot of searching for audio equipment and more and more in the last year or two I find that google just gives me people selling the equipment and rarely gives me the manufacture or specs of the equipment which is what I'm searching for.

#11.2 Slacker on 22 Mar 2004 - 13:53

Just do a search for equipment and you will see... MSN search has a column of ads on the right side while Google doesn't... Clearly a column of ads is more than no ads...

#11.3 Slacker on 22 Mar 2004 - 14:01

You want something more concrete? www.search.msn.com takes ~44Kb to download while www.google.com takes ~14Kb... Clearly 44 is larger than 14... For a dialup person, this is the difference between 3 seconds and 9 seconds of download time assuming that they can get a good 5Kb/s speed. Saying otherwise is simply ridiculious...

(1 reply) #12 mipra on 21 Mar 2004 - 21:59

Thank god..MS has finally realizaed that their search engine sucks

#12.1 Trade Wind on 22 Mar 2004 - 00:27

They realized that a long time ago...the whole thing was/is basically outsourced in a turnkey kind of sense via third parties.

After July, Microsoft will finally own and operate their own search engine.

#13 Trade Wind on 22 Mar 2004 - 00:28

All Eyes On Google: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4570868/

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Microsoft's MSN plans new search engine in July

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