MSN search goes live...when??

[I, Brian]

I was under the impression that earlier reports had the MSN search being planned for release in December 2004. It had me wondering if MS would be considering timnig the launch of MSN search with Chicago SES, and ride on the wave of search publicity online.

However, from various reports about the webmaster forums claiming issues with MSN search relevancy, I'm wondering if I've gotten mixed up on the actual projected launch date??

[rustybrick]

I heard January.

[iamrussell]

I've read numerous reports about the MSN Beta and they all say different things about the launch date. One said December, others have said before March '05 and another said Winter '05. And the funny part is that they're all quoting MSN representatives.

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the comments - I've found the Wall Street Journal talking about integration with the main MSN site within January 2005. Be nice to see that happen.

I don't know when M$N is going to bring their new SE to production, but I do hope they hurry.

Has anyone (besides me) had any problems with the new M$N bot?

[AussieWebmaster]

The results need a lot more work before they can realistically go live with this product.

[iamrussell]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

The results need a lot more work before they can realistically go live with this product.

Have you seen the results they're using now?

[iamrussell]

I just went to beta.serch.msn.com and the live search came up (search.msn.com). I hit refresh and the beta then came up. I wonder if this means anything...

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by iamrussell

Have you seen the results they're using now?

Exactly.

[Marcia]

The regular MSN search is rocking now as far as I'm concerned, the longer they take to launch their own the better I'll like it.

From what I've seen the beta has a LONG way to go before it's ready for prime time, as far as relevancy goes.

[AussieWebmaster]

Thay have piles of doorway pages in there right now... separate listings for domains .com, .info, .net etc. all that redirect to the same page... the results for "forex" have 6 to the same page.
If that continues I can own the words I want.

[Dave Hawley]

I would say they at MSN probably do not when they can go live. As my boss always use to tell me "you'll know when it happens"

I hoping sooner rather than later as I fair much better in beta While I do like Google, I have never liked the fact that I rely so heavily on them for traffic.

[dannysullivan]

Bill Gates said earlier this year that the new tech would go live on MSN Search by the end of this year. That's why the Dec. 2004 date is out there. I think MSN Search may have recently backtracked and put out the Jan. 2005 date to have more time to work with. Either case, not long now.

[St0n3y]

MSN is doing itself no favors by regurgitating Yahoo results. Rolling out a flawed product NOW (a Microsoft specialty) is better than rolling out an imperfect product months down the road.

I would have thunk that this lesson was learned when Yahoo kept regurgitating Google results during the Florida disaster.

[AussieWebmaster]

I am already gearing up for this possibility.... if they come out soon with all the flaws I will ride the errors as long as they last and there are a bunch of them.

[iamrussell]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

if they come out soon with all the flaws I will ride the errors as long as they last and there are a bunch of them.

Like what? What would you do?

[AussieWebmaster]

Create endless mirrored pages that are laden with keywords in meta and body