Microsoft Is No Threat To Google -- Yet
Spinner
Birmingham, UK
In the past decade, searching the Web has grown from an academic experiment to a multibillion-dollar business. Microsoft has not been a player, being content to outsource its MSN Search service to rival Yahoo!. Now, Microsoft is offering a homegrown search engine, but, despite some nice touches, it has a long way to go to challenge industry leader Google.
Source: Businessweek
At least they're trying...When you type in a search term that can be interpreted as a factual question, Microsoft will try to give you a simple answer from its Encarta encyclopedia. For example, "capital of Ohio" returned the answer "Columbus" and a click on "Encarta Answers" took you to additional information on Ohio. Unfortunately, the encyclopedia search is buggy. "Who shot Lincoln" prompted MSN to ask "Were you looking for 'who shot' near Lincoln, Neb." Typing in "President of France" offered no answer but did gave a link to a speech presented in France by the president of the Church of Scientology.
Microsoft does not plan to make the new version the official MSN Search until early next year. That gives it plenty of time to fix the glitches. The company is also still building its index of the Web and says when it is finished, it will not only be bigger than Google's but will be updated far more often. In the meantime, however, Google is going to find things that Microsoft misses.
Source: Businessweek
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