Microsoft’s New Live Search

Microsoft is deploying the largest update to its Live Search service since 2005.

Microsoft’s search engine is the 3rd most popular in the US and this is largely seen as an attempt by the software behemoth to catch up to the more popular Google and Yahoo search offerings.

Here are the basics about the new Live search from the announcement blog entry:

• Relevance, relevance, relevance. We’ve quadrupled the size of our index, which means we can return the right results for your searches. Improvements like enhanced ranking algorithms, auto-spell correction and better stop word handling help us return the best results.
• Speed. Pages load much faster than before.
• Streamlined look and feel. We focused on the end-to-end experience from the homepage throughout the site. For example, search results are now easier to read thanks to work on typography, contrast, colors and spacing.
• More high-interest content. You asked us for more in Entertainment, Shopping, Health, Local and Video search and we’re happy to deliver it.

In all honesty, I don’t see a great deal to be excited about with this re-deployment beyond the improved relevancy. The one interesting feature is the RSS option for web searches allowing you to track how a keyword result changes in real time through your feed reader. This could be a handy option for the more keyword focused ppc affiliates involved in Microsoft’s adCenter.

You can find more opinions and observations about the new search service at Techmeme, but I’m not expecting more than a collective “meh” from the blogosphere as Microsoft seems to have arrived late to the holistic search relevancy party.

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