Microsoft Live search overhaul

Filed under: Internet, News, Google, Microsoft, Search

Microsoft Live search overhaul - ho hum

by Dolores Parker Sep 28th 2007

With Google turning 9 today and still being the search engine for most everyone on the planet, it's only natural the other big dogs are going to try to bump them off and take-over. The newest bid in this effort is Microsoft and the overhaul of their Live Search site, www.live.com.

Live is hyping its search results as a "blended search" where Microsoft attempts to anticipate what its users want. An example used is the search term 'digital camera' with the first results being a sort of product guide of camera models and their reviews taken from the usual suspects Amazon.com and PriceGrabber.com. These show up in the sponsored sites category which most everyone immediately ignores, much like the advertisement pages in magazines that are layed out to look like real articles.

The links that follow the sponsored results look like what you would find at Google. Almost exactly. See the screenshots below.

Sure the presentation and look is different, but that's probably not going to sway users to switch from their favorite Google giant. Apparently, however Microsoft is going to use this "blended search" model for searches associated with products, local businesses, health information and entertainment in the coming month. Wow. That is not very exciting.

As James Carville might put it, "It's about the search results, stupid." If anyone is going to take aim at Google, they are going to have to do better than stabs at incremental innovation.

Mahalo on the other hand, has something new and different. See Mahalo's screenshot below of the search term 'digital camera.' Note there is no suggested sponsor link box - a nice and welcome nod to our intelligence. And they make the results so easy to sift through so we can find exactly what we want. Not to mention the layout is significantly different and completely intuitive. So, which search engine would you rather use? Take our poll.

Update: As you can see from this review, I was surprised that a "new site" looked so blah and boring. Two of our readers (Thanks Craig and Ervanesque!) noticed that the screenshot was of the old site. The reason the site looks old and dry to me is because it is! It's the same site, The new Live.com hasn't been loading most of the time. So depending on when you go to the site, sometimes the new one will load, sometimes the old. Kind of like a moving target. Yes, it's still in beta, but c'mon!

Anyway, here's a screenshot of the New site. Yes, it's different, but it's still not very good.

At the time of writing this update, clicking on one of the camera links gets you an error message.

So, in sum, the new overhaul has some kinks and bugs to work out before it's ready for prime time.

[via the New York Times]

Tags: Google, Mahalo, Microsoft-Live-Search, search-engines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ed said 11:50AM on 9-28-2007

The main difference seems to be the speed, it is much faster now, on a par with Google.

CG said 12:35PM on 9-28-2007

Umm, actually, looks like you're looking at the old site.

This is the new Live Search.

CG said 12:37PM on 9-28-2007

Link: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=canon+powerShot+s2&go=Search&form=PRESS

burnblue said 1:38PM on 9-28-2007

LOL.. seems a bit embarrassing if after all that hate-talk you were looking at the wrong site

I'm not sure why you're hyping this Mahalo (when there are so many alternative search engines out there -- did you friends build it or something?), but I don't think it's in the same category as Google and Live. I believe they refer to themselves as human-powered search. When you search for digital camera, you get a nice list of categories.. which is annoying because I could have searched for any of these sub-categories myself, or gone to any of the popular sites they suggest and run a search for cameras.
The Live/Google/Ask method of showing you a proper page title and intro text is much more useful for immediately selecting a result. Now search for something more obscure on Mahalo (try your name) and you get.. "results from our friends at Google". Why use them then?

Of the three, I still prefer Google's since I seem to see relevant results more quickly (the bottom line). Microsoft did kindly offer little links asking if their features are helpful or not, which I used.

burnblue said 1:50PM on 9-28-2007

Let me add that Live is superior to Google Yahoo and Ask for Image Search.

Atanas Boev said 2:42PM on 9-28-2007

Noone would search for "digital camera":) It is like searching for "free ringtones" or something like that. Of course it would generate plenty of nice "business" hits.
I am afraid this "blended search" will generate funny results like the system that underlines random words on blogs hoping for the best:)
So, how about if I search for "baroque windows"? Is it going to blend in advertisements for Vista?

michael said 4:38PM on 9-28-2007

I love Live Search over Google Search now.

Unlike some people, I actually used the latest one, and it works great.

For me, the results are relevant, the style is somewhat better, and the vertical searches are awesome.

Have you tried video searches? They're really awesome. If you hover over a thumbnail image, it will play like 10-15 sec. worth of it. Right there on your screen, no slow down.

Image search is so much cooler and convenient. Especially with the scratchpad feature.

And I could go on and on, but to me, the Live Search 2.0 is much cooler.

Lisa Hoover said 7:49PM on 9-28-2007

Burnblue, maybe she talks about Mahalo because she likes it? As you said, there are so many alternative search engines out there which means there's something for everyone. Personally, I like Dogpile. That's why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream, eh?

Michael, the video feature sounds awfully cool. I still can't get to the new site but that's the first thing I'll check out when I finally can.

burnblue said 10:22PM on 9-28-2007

Perhaps I was a bit mean.. I just thought that selection odd to compare with the other two

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