BUSINESS
MSN launches new search engine
01-02-2005
by
Following some 18 months of development, USD100 million in investment, and a fair degree of hype, Microsoft has launched its new search engine.
The new facility, which is part of web portal MSN, is aimed squarely at Google's core competence -- internet searches. The move also marks the end of MSN's partnership with Yahoo, which had been providing Microsoft with its web search technology. The pair became bedfellows when Yahoo purchased MSN's previous search-technology partner, Overture Services, in late 2003.
Microsoft talked up its looming search technology throughout much of 2004, often highlighting the USD100 million it had spent developing the technology. The firm also allowed certain key developers access to its new search engine last year and, for the general public, the firm redesigned and simplified its search page.
Microsoft said that the new MSN Search facility will kick off with a four-month advertising and marketing blitz, which is expected to include online advertising as well as television commercials -- including spots that will run in key US cities during the SuperBowl, one of the most watched television events in the United States.
Microsoft, typically a latecomer with regard to new technology, has been under real pressure from Google and Yahoo, with the former branching out into new quasi-search markets like e-shopping, news aggregation, internet matchmaking, and even online book searches and maps -- areas that are likely to draw users away from the MSN portal. Such expansions have always been part of Yahoo's strategy, but it too drew the wrath of the Redmond giant after buying Overture Services, pitting the two firms more acutely against each other.
Importantly, Google's dominance of the sector is beginning to falter, some analysts have said in recent months. The technological supremacy that the company once possessed has been eroded slightly as Yahoo, MSN and even smaller search engines such as Amazon's A9 have improved.
Indeed, it has been said that Google's edge now lies as much with its brand as with its technology and list of services, which have become easier to replicate, turning the three search engines into shadows of one another. Observers have noted that MSN's coming marketing campaign is a clear assault on the brand loyalty that Google enjoys.
Still, the company was quick to point to MSN Search's capabilities, including a feature that links the engine to Microsoft's Encarta encyclopaedia, providing answers to specific questions asked by users. A similar feature will deliver details about musicians, record labels and bands, with click-through options that will let US users purchase music tracks from MSN Music.
Other new MSN Search features include a "Search Builder" to allow people to emphasise or de-emphasise certain criteria in specific searches. A category-specific search option and so-called local searches are also available, Microsoft said. MSN noted that most of the new features -- such as music and local searches -- are aimed at US users; however, the company's new search engine does support 10 languages.
"We're committed to continuous improvement in the speed, precision and ease of use of our search service," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft. "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."
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