MSN will launch their MSN Search Service in 25 markets and 10 languages worldwide, today.
The MSN Search engine has been in public beta testing since November 2004. The MSN Search team have been gathering feedback from a variety of different users in order to release their finely tuned search engine.
Through gathering this feedback the MSN Search team have been listening to customers throughout the whole development process. The end result is a search engine that allows customers to search specific tailored queries for their own needs. MSN Search allows users to search the Web, news, images, music, desktop and Microsoft Encarta. Users can query the search engine and receive more than 1.5 million answers from Encarta. Users can also type the name of an artist, song or album into MSN Search and get links to information on those songs and sample music. In indexing results for their search engine, MSN have Search bots that index daily or weekly to ensure results are accurate and up to date.
In a statement to associated press, Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft said "We"re committed to continuous improvement in the speed, precision and ease of use of our search service ... 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"
MSN Search users can also use search tools that give them more control over how and where they search for information. Search builder allows people to extensively customize searches by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain search criteria — such as a specific site or domain, country or region, or language — via a menu of adjustable onscreen dials. Search near me offers users the ability to tailor their search results to a specific geographic location to ensure results relevant to where they are or where they want to go.
Along with today"s announcement, MSN have also released an updated Desktop Search Beta. The new version of the Toolbar Suite (02.00.0001.1203) fixes several bugs, stability and robustness issues and has fixed the virus pop ups problem.
MSN is planning to promote their newly launched search engine with TV adverts, web adverts and in magazines across the United States.