Get your @live.com email address today

Posted Nov 6th 2007 10:01PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Microsoft

As expected, Microsoft is releasing its updated suite of Windows Live applications and services. And as of this evening that means you can sign up for a brand new xxx@live.com e-mail address to replace your musty old xxx@hotmail.com address.

You're supposed to be able to sign up by going through get.live.com as well, but it looks like you may have mixed results if you go that route right now.

In addition to Live.com email addresses, Microsoft is offering up localized email accounts for more than 30 countries, from Argentina to Vietnam.

[via Bink.nu]

Microsoft revamps Live search

Posted Sep 27th 2007 9:09AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Microsoft, Search

Microsoft has launched an updated version of Live Search. Some of the changes will be visible in the user interface, but the company also made a bunch of changes under the hood to make the search engine more useful and reliable.

• Increased the site index by more than 400%
• Improved understanding of query intent
• Auto-spell correction
• Faster page-loads
• Uses more click-stream data to improve page ranking and relevancy
• Improved answers to questions about specific items like weather, images, celebrities, entertainment, maps, or sports

The interface is also a bit cleaner. The search box has moved to the left. The tabs for searching images, video, news have been replaced with text links (which are a bit harder to notice than tabs at first). And the fonts look a little less 1985-ish.

Apparently 40 percent of the searches on Live.com involve entertainment, shopping, health, and local search, so Microsoft has focused heavily on these four areas.

Microsoft gets set to launch new Live.com Search interface

Posted Sep 26th 2007 1:30PM by Chris Gilmer
Filed under: Business, Internet, Blogging, Web services, Microsoft, Search

Microsoft is headed towards the rollout of a new Live.com search today, including a brand spankin' new interface.

There will be a gathering in Mountain View at the Microsoft campus for industry insiders to get a glimpse at Microsoft's latest search interface and redesign today. The new redesign will see a refreshing look for the search interface taking cues from both Ask and Google Universal Search. MSN Shopping will also get tied into the search results for consumer product results, making for an all around better user experience.

Akram Hussein, a Windows Live Platform Program Manager caught a glimpse of the new look while on his home PC, and managed to snap a few shots of the cleaned up design. He has since pulled down the post with images from his website but we did manage to get copies and have compared them with the current Live.com search results. We will have to wait and see what else is truly unveiled as all information from the meeting will be under an embargo for later this evening.

In more MSN news, there is also talk of MSN Video adding instant start and less intrusive ads in video content.

UPDATE: Microsoft's press release on the new updated Live Search Engine.

Gallery: Microsoft gets set to launch new Live.com Search interface

[via marketingpilgrim]

Windows Live Search for video launched

Posted Aug 25th 2006 3:30PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Video, Web services, Microsoft

Yesterday Microsoft announced the addition of video search to Windows Live.com Search, the currently-in-beta successor to MSN Search. The results are clean and uncluttered and the index seems to be pretty robust. Each result shows a thumbnail image and the video's title, length, and a short description where available. It pulls results from many sites, including big-media sites like ABC and Comedy Central as well as the new generation of social sites like YouTube and Grouper. Beyond that, there's little to report, but it does serve as a nice complement to Live.com's existing web and image search offerings.

[Via Don Dodge]

Amazon dumping Google for Microsoft

Posted May 1st 2006 12:45PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Web services, Google, Microsoft

Search Engine Lowdown is reporting that Amazon appears to be dumping Google in favor of partnerships with Microsoft. In particular, Amazon's A9 search engine now draws results from Microsoft's Live.com, and Amazon subsidiary Alexa is doing the same. A9 and Alexa search results now sport a "Powered by Windows Live" badge. I'm most surprised by the A9 switch, since it has been powered by Google since its debut two years ago. There has been no official release from Amazon concerning the switch.

[Via Slashdot]

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