View Full Version : Behold the new face of MSN Search
MSN Search (http://search.msn.com/)
A couple of hours early, those eager beavers.
Apparantly they've also removed all Site Match listings? I can't tell because I haven't yet used the site match service.
Dodger
07-01-2004, 12:57 AM
Nice find Lex. The search pages are really clean looking, Googlesque!
I was looking at the "look before it is gone" page and saw that they claim to have 1 billion pages in the index already on this page (http://techpreview.search.msn.com/about.aspx). They also claim that it will grow very quickly. I will buy that, the MSNbot is everywhere.
The actual search results do differ from the tech preview results. I wonder why that is.
They do appear to be subjective to all of those As Seen on TV cookie cutter pages though. It will be interesting to see how they deal with them.
Dodger
07-01-2004, 01:14 AM
Some interesting choices in the Advanced (http://search.msn.com/advanced.aspx) options are Enable Stemming, one result per domain, sort equally relevant results by date or title, restrict results by region or language, and directory depth.
Stemming is OFF by default it seems.
Also it appears that the results over at http://techpreview.search.msn.com/ are showing the handiwork of the MSNbot crawls. That will explain the differences between that and the live search site.
...and a few samplings have been very favorable (to me anyway). So far I am liking what I am seeing.
This is really 2 different topics so I started a new thread on the backend preview here (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438). We'll keep this discussion about the new look.
Dodger
07-01-2004, 03:00 AM
Apparantly they've also removed all Site Match listings? I can't tell because I haven't yet used the site match service.
SiteMatch??? or Inktomi?
garyp
07-01-2004, 03:50 AM
Here are a couple of things I noticed.
1) The advanced interface is not new. All of these options have been available for some time.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030622123748/http://www.search.msn.com/advanced.aspx
2) Read what MS says about web search.
http://search.msn.com/static/message.htm
3) Showing 15 results as a default. Yahoo shows 20. Yahoo also numbers results. Useful for the searcher.
4) You can now query several "specialized" catalogs from the main interface.
5) Don't forget Yahoo also has a google-like interface. In fact, you can even personalize which tabs are visible.
http://search.yahoo.com
Also, for those of you like reading "official announcements" here's the news from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/jun04/06-30ImprovedSearch2004PR.asp
Dodger
07-01-2004, 04:34 AM
4) You can now query several "specialized" catalogs from the main interface.
5) Don't forget Yahoo also has a google-like interface. In fact, you can even personalize which tabs are visible.
http://search.yahoo.com
I like the tabbed approach at Yahoo/Google better than that drop down box personally.
The personalized tabs only work on the base search page at Yahoo. They do not carry thru after you make the search, so if you want to use those extra tabs you have to return to the main page.
What I found hard to find is the list for the keywords (domain:, link:, phone: etc.) I cannot find an easy way to locate these. At Yahoo, I just noticed they have a link to something called Shortcuts which opens up a whole page of these without having to know what the keyword is.
All of these changes that are going to come about in the next few months is going to be hard to keep up with.
garyp
07-01-2004, 04:57 AM
Dodger:
Yahoo has been really ramping up on the shortcuts. This is a move towards search engines becoming "answer engines" for certain types of queries. I've been documenting them as they roll out on ResourceShelf and will now do the same on SEW.
Shortcuts are not a new idea. They've been around for several years since first launched by AltaVista. Did you see my SearchDay article on what Jeeves is up to?
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3370751
In some cases Jeeves doesn't even need a trigger word to activate the shortcut. They have gone out a mined speciality databases and place an answer directly on the results page. Examples in the SearchDay article.
You can also find even more Ask Jeeves shortcuts here:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/archives/2003_07_01_resourceshelf_archive.html/#105897690859619316
Dodger
07-01-2004, 05:07 AM
Gary: I am aware of the new shortcuts. I was just commenting on the Shortcut Link in the header more than anything. I just now noticed it. I think that is a nice touch, but probably should be more noticable.
I think they all should have a link like this IMO. Having lists all over the place is cumbersome ... Yahoo's approach is nice to see.
dannysullivan
07-01-2004, 05:10 AM
My SearchDay story (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3376041) today wraps-up many of the changes, with some comments from Microsoft. Here's the key points from my view.
MSN Search (http://search.msn.com/) has a new look in keeping with the promises Microsoft said would happen earlier this year. Sponsored results are in sponsored areas.
MSN Search has dropped all paid inclusion listings, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft has also released their new search technology via here (http://sandbox.msn.com/), but this is NOT being used at MSN Search. That remains Yahoo powered. As Lex said, a separate thread (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438) talks about this new technology more.
James Colborn
07-01-2004, 09:19 AM
I like the new interface, it's easier to find information.
Some of my initial observations are:
a) Featured Sites contains both MSN Featured Sites (of old) and Overture links if MSN haven't filled their Featured Sites quota. This means you can potentially double your listings in the SPONSORED SITES section.
b) Despite having a much larger area of screen for the Overture listings if they appeared in the SPONSORED SITES section this is still being truncated...
If the Overture listings are truncated in both the top section and the right had section of the site perhaps we should rethink our creative strategies???
End.
rustybrick
07-01-2004, 09:52 AM
Alright, so they made it look more like Google with the simple search box. Let's see how their search technology is when it comes out of beta.
Sorry for being so pessimistic, but these guys are very smart marketers. Release a new design and then talk about a sneak peak to their new search technology...I should also mention I am a hard core Apple fanatic, so I am biased by nature. M$ took the Macintosh's trash can (well the GUI) and made it a recycle bin, how original. Now M$ is borrowing from Google.
More to come and I can't wait.
SiteMatch??? or Inktomi?
Dodger, I read the following in a CNET article (http://news.com.com/MSN+launches+revamped+search+engine/2100-1032_3-5254083.html?tag=nefd.lede).
Microsoft also took a step that could distance it from Yahoo, removing search links for now from marketers that pay a fee for inclusion in Yahoo's search index.
I took that to mean Site Match, but it makes more sense if she's referring to Inktomi.
dannysullivan
07-01-2004, 11:44 AM
What they've removed are any -- any -- paid inclusion listings. So if you did the old Inktomi program, you're supposed to be out. If you did the new Yahoo program, you're still supposed to be out.
Dodger
07-01-2004, 06:13 PM
What they've removed are any -- any -- paid inclusion listings. So if you did the old Inktomi program, you're supposed to be out. If you did the new Yahoo program, you're still supposed to be out.
But technically you are still in the index though, right? It is just that nobody is collecting money from you for being there now. In other words, the pages that fell under the Inktomi inclusions are now organic.
Dodger
07-01-2004, 06:16 PM
Dodger, I read the following in a CNET article (http://news.com.com/MSN+launches+revamped+search+engine/2100-1032_3-5254083.html?tag=nefd.lede).
I took that to mean Site Match, but it makes more sense if she's referring to Inktomi.
I see....after reading that, it does appear to hint more at SiteMatch in a way. Oh well. Danny said they are all out. Hasta la vista, baby! :eek:
James Colborn
07-02-2004, 08:41 AM
But technically you are still in the index though, right? It is just that nobody is collecting money from you for being there now. In other words, the pages that fell under the Inktomi inclusions are now organic.
Yep! Completely gone, unfortunately! I'm a little disappointed to be honest. After all as a searcher I welcome paid inclusion as it's a whole lot more relevant (IMO) than organic (who would pay for a click that doesn't have the potential to convert?).
As a marketer I'm also annoyed as a profitable channel is now no more.
End. :mad:
mocara
07-02-2004, 06:17 PM
I've noticed that sites which use refferal systems such as myaffiliate.com are missrepresented.
All the links such as www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/user/b.asp?id=112 go through to a site such as www.somesite.com they are not pages merely redirects, in fact 301 moveds, yet the engine shows them as pages. Very wierd.
Surely these should not show up in search results?
Appologises, I was talking about the new beta search engine :-)
sagerock
07-30-2004, 06:04 PM
Hi everybody,
I'm curious if any of you have experienced the pain of the July drop of SiteMatch from MSN. I had about 70 urls that were doing just fine in MSN and they are now gone.
I've tried the free submission a couple weeks ago. But I'm still not seeing any thing near as to what we had.
Have any of you tried contacting Yahoo to attempt to get spidered for the free engine? Or are you just waiting it out?
Thanks everybody!
Sage