I don't see the word BETA anymore on the New MSN Search (http://search.msn.com/) and here are the News breaks:

MSN Search Officially Switches To Its Own Technology (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3466721)
SearchEngineWatch.com - By Danny Sullivan, Editor
February 01, 2005 - Nearly two years after announcing it would develop its own search technology, MSN Search began feeding the general public results found through its own internally developed search engine.

Don't forget to checkout Gary's blog for Many MSN Direct Answers Now Online (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050201-000101) which looks in more detail how this new search engine is increasing the number of direct answers it provides.

How to Build a Better Search Engine: MSN Launches New Internet Search Service (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/feb05/02-01MSNSearch.asp)
Microsoft PressPass - By Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft began work to build a new search engine -- based entirely on its own technology -- in March 2003, and forged close collaboration between MSN and Microsoft Research, plus regular feedback and input from customers and outside experts. Read More . . . (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/feb05/02-01MSNSearch.asp)

MSN Launches New Internet Search Service Designed to Give More-Precise Answers in Less Time (http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-01-2005/0002940046&EDATE=)
PRNewswire-FirstCall - By Microsoft Corp.

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today marks the
worldwide(1) launch of the new MSN(R) Search, the first-ever search engine
built from the ground up by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to help consumers more quickly search the Web and get precise answers. Now available in 25 markets(1) and 10 languages, the new MSN Search service delivers more-relevant results, instant answers to specific questions, and a collection of tools that give Internet users greater control in targeting and refining searches. Read more. . . (http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-01-2005/0002940046&EDATE=)

MSN Search Launches (http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/01/31/364278.aspx)
msnsearch's WebLog - By Christopher Payne, Corporate VP, MSN Search
MSN Campaigns For Search Share in Integrated Effort (http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3466741)
ClickZ News - By Pamela Parker

MSN unveils its new search engine (http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B72E4FEF4-E31B-4481-82E0-E0650A001878%7D)
MarketWatch - By Bambi Francisco

Microsoft kicks off search effort (http://news.com.com/Microsoft+kicks+off+search+effort/2100-1032_3-5557994.html)
CNET News.com - By Stefanie Olsen

Microsoft to Start Its Own Search Service (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/technology/01search.html)
New York Times - By SAUL HANSELL.

Microsoft takes on Google and Yahoo! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1402872,00.html)
Guardian, UK - By Owen Gibson

Microsoft broadens launch of new search engine (http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/articles/1216447.html)
Daily Breeze, CA - By The Associated Press

MSN takes on Google dominance with own search engine (http://www.brandrepublic.com/digitalbulletin/news_story.cfm?articleID=233970&Origin=DB01022005)
Digital Bulletin, UK - By Louise Scodie

Microsoft officially enters search engine fray (http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050131.gtmsnjan31/BNStory/Technology/)
Globetechnology.com, Canada - By JACK KAPICA

Microsoft broadens launch of new Internet search engine (http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=8270_0_6_0_C)
Always On - By AP WorldStream

If I go to http://search.msn.com from a UK IP I get a redirect to http://search.msn.co.uk/?geovar=150 .

Same if I tried http://search.msn.de from the UK.

But http://search.msn.ca takes me to http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/ - so that one isn't geo redirected

I can still get to MSN.com, for now, from the UK...a sign of thigns to come across all MSN sites?

http://specials.msn.com/letter/billgates.html?GT1=6190


"...Our mission at Microsoft is to use the power of software to solve our customers' toughest problems. Searching the Internet today is a challenge, and it is estimated that nearly half of customers' complex questions go unanswered. That's why we're proud of our new MSN Search service, a simple and powerful tool that helps you find the answers you want from sources as diverse as Web pages, images, news headlines, music downloads, and even files on your PC..."

Hmmm.... very interesting to notice on the bottom right of the new MSN.com site, "Bill Gates’ Top Searches":

News: vaccines
Images: Legos
Pets for sale
Bridge
Technology

Quite frankly, I would rather see my own personal searches rather than Bill Gates'. So much for the . . . "help consumers more quickly search the Web and get precise answers"

Hi, well, so far I like what I see at the new MSN Search.

I've noticed I have better positions for some keywords of my site, at least better than Google and Yahoo Search.

Have you compared how your sites rank at MSN Search compared to other SE's?

I am in the furniture industry and have noticed more spam available in my arena of search terms ranking higher than what our legitimate pages rank on MSN searrch. Unfortunately they do have some work to do on MSN search in that aspect. Google has done a better job in regulating search engine spam, however this does put my listings in a predicament, as you can imagine. Beginning a few months ago, with Google's new restrictions on search engine spam I refined all of our pages to ensure that we were not in a position to be accused of search engine spam. After making the changes our positions in Google began to improve and the other sites that were known to have spammed dropped severely. Unfortunately since I made an extra effort to revamp our efforts on Google, our positions in MSN search dropped, significantly. I am not alarmed at this point because we spend so much money on Overture that it is offset, but in the meantime I am reporting competitors that are obviously breaking the TOS to rank higher. Let's hope that they get their spam problem fixed as soon as possible, I can see other companies taking advantage of the spam effect and devising rather unscrupulous disposable domains to capture that traffic. Don't know if this helps anyone but I thought I would post just to vent. lol

Well I doubt it will make much difference for Microsft to have its own Search Engine. I just participated on an online vote from a Forbes article "Which Search Engine Is The Best? (http://www.forbes.com/2005/02/02/cx_js_0202polldujour.html)"

MSN Search Engine, How Much Success for Microsoft (http://www.expressnewsline.com/1005/fullstory1005-insight-MSN+Search+engine-status-18-newsID-17.html)
Microsoft has unveiled its new search engine with more result pages. The company has said that they have now indexed a lot more pages from all over the web and the figures show they have nearly half of the google's indexed numbers.
Microsoft Launches Home-Grown Internet Search Service (http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=59300269) Information Week
Microsoft having a big hit with new MSN Search? (http://www.dvhardware.net/article4096.html) DV Hardware
Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/02/02/cx_js_0202polldujour.html) - Boost Marketing (http://www.boostmarketing.com/story.php?id=524) - Ployer (http://ployer.com/archives/2005/02/microsoft_to_sp.php) - PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1724467,00.asp) - all 504 related » (http://news.google.co.uk/news?lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&ned=uk&hl=en&ncl=http://www.expressnewsline.com/1005/fullstory1005-insight-MSN%2BSearch%2Bengine-status-18-newsID-17.html)
From a financial point of view, the performance of Google is at least four times as strong as Microsoft's and I doubt Microsoft will have such an easy game now as they had with Netscape! Google shows extremly strong and probably will beat Microsoft within years.

In the past few weeks I find myself often going to MSN Search to find what I am looking for. Out of habit I check Google first but more often than not their results do not include what I am looking for. So, I check MSN and I am pleasantly surprised to find exactly what am looking for in the top few results.

This morning I mentioned that in passing to a couple of people who are not involved in any commercial interests on the web and they cut me off and replied "Yes, Google isn't very good anymore".

What an opportunity for MSN - go get'em!

Snap! I just had a similar conversation with some offline marketing people who are quiet web-savy.

"Google's results are rubbish now" was the quote. And then we did talk about MSN. General consenus was it has potential...(but so did WiseNut once. :( )