LiveSide - News blog : Search

BingTweets

Sunshine — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:34:16 GMT

We already told you about a bit of Twitter in Bing, but the team took it a step further. They’ve partnered up with with Federated Media and Twitter to create BingTweets.

BingTweets fuses Bing search results with real time content from Twitter.

How does partnering with Twitter make Bing a more effective decision engine? Many people share their thoughts on Twitter, and search engines don’t currently do a great job of capturing that real-time content. We designed Bing to help you make faster, more informed decisions, and, since people often turn to real-time content to help them make decisions, BingTweets was a logical next step.

For example, when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince comes out tomorrow, you may want to scan the official reviews, local theater listing, AND the latest Tweets on the movie to help you decide whether to rush to see it. With BingTweets, you can cover all that ground in one place.

BingTweets pulls in trends from Twitter and filters into categories such as “Popular Now,” “People,” “Places” and “Products” enabling easier navigation of the ever changing trends on the Web. You can also fire off a search on any topic of your choosing to see the related search results from Bing and Twitter discussion.

Check out BingTweets and let the team know what you think. Chinese readers check out Picturepan2’s article over on Livesino.net.

Dr. Qi Lu to keynote SMX Advanced

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:28:17 GMT

In his first public appearance since joining Microsoft, Dr. Qi Lu, President of Microsoft’s Online Services Division, will kick off day 2 of the search marketing expo held annually in Seattle in early June.

This year’s SMX Advanced, held on June 1-3, will feature Dr. Lu, who will participate in a keynote conversation with Search Engine Land editor in chief Danny Sullivan. He is “expected to address a wide range of topics including his thoughts on where search is heading and the opportunities Microsoft sees to drive change”, according to a blog post on Search Engine Land, which sponsors the event. Day one will feature Google software engineer and blogger Matt Cutts, in a “You&A” session where he will take questions from the audience.

We’ll be at SMX Advanced to bring you all the latest.

Live Search to test update to MSNBot crawler

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:12:32 GMT

Search engines (like Live Search, or Google) work by “crawling” the web, looking for web pages and reporting back on their content. Live Search has been making improvements on the crawler, and will be testing a new improved crawler in the coming weeks. According to Jeremiah Andrick over at the Live Search Webmaster blog:

In the coming weeks, we will be testing an update to MSNBot, which may show up as a new crawler name in your referrer logs. The new crawler user agent string will appear as:

msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)

You’ll still see the current version msnbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm) as Live Search’s primary user agent. We intend to ensure that any robots exclusion protocol you are using is respected. As such, you don’t need to update your Robots.txt file. We plan on crawling at a slow speed during the tests with the updated version.

Live Search added new functionality to the MSNBot/1.1 earlier this year, adding support for HTTP Compression and Conditional Get. Improvements to the search crawler don’t quite rank up there with news about a name change, an acquisition of Yahoo Search, or hiring a new boss, but in the long run could be as significant, if it improves search relevancy.

Search roundup - More Kumo domains, Yahoo deal still makes sense for mobile growth

Chris — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:32:00 GMT

While talk of the weekend may have been around whether or not a $20bn Microsoft-Yahoo search deal is back on the cards, there were a few other bits and pieces that caught my eye.

Firstly was Mary Jo Foley's post about the continued push to rebrand Live Search as Kumo. Mary-Jo has jumped on some of the vertical search domains now registered by CSC Corporate Domains, including Kumosearch.com and Kumotravel.com. While the continued land grab for kumo domains is a strong suggestion of things to come, the cost to Microsoft of backing out before announcing is still very low.

Secondly was the article I read today about Yahoo further expanding its mobile partnerships. While these corporate strategic alliances/joint ventures are commonplace, one statistic caught my eye. Yahoo is the default search engine for 850million mobile subscribers (emphasis mine). With mobile search and advertising key sectors still not dominated by Google, a Microsoft acquisition of these Yahoo users could be a big contribution to future search growth. (Yes I know subscribers doesn't equal users).

Any other search related stories caught your eye? Feel free to drop them in the comments below.

Microsoft takes control of Kumo.com domain – watch out for the Live Search rebrand

Chris — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:04:24 GMT

A few months ago Mary Jo Foley got a tip about some new brand names that were being considered for Live Search. One of these, Kumo, jumped out at us due to the sheer scale of TLDs that had been acquired during 2008, as well as the corporate owner hiding anonymously behind the registrar. Incidentally, Kumo means “cloud” or “spider” in Japanese.

Fast forward to this week and Microsoft suddenly showed its hand. Control of the Kumo.com domain was moved from the registrar to Microsoft, and is now pointing to an internal Microsoft test site (employees only).

You can test this out at home by firing up the command prompt (type “cmd” in the Vista start box) and then type “tracert kumo.com”. You’ll see the route to the end location go through a few msn.com servers, and then suddenly you’ll notice all those asterisks, which is where Kumo.com becomes available for internal use only.

We’re guessing that the internal sites are probably similar to the user interface testing versions that had screenshots leaked last month. These are used to run various permutations of the search UI to see how they perform against a control version. See pictures of the previously leaked testing versions below.

Of course new screenshots are welcome at our usual address: tips [at] liveside dot net

While Microsoft employees have admitted publicly that there are branding issues around Live Search, we’re not quite ready to stick our heads above the parapet and say that Kumo will be the new brand name to be announced in a 2009 update.

For a start Microsoft and search branding has been a mess for a while and so who outside the company knows where they will actually end up in 6 or 12 months from now.

Then there has been separate chatter about a rebrand back to Windows Live Search, which would tie the search engine back to the other Windows Live properties and Windows as a whole. Given the $300m ad campaign – Windows, Life Without Walls – seeks to link Windows + Live + Mobile together, this could make sense. However for the conspiracy theorists out there, which includes us, this could be one way of hiding the real new brand name internally.

Perhaps more importantly, a floundering Yahoo, minus Jerry Yang, really does offer some good acquisition incentives for Microsoft. How much should you pay for a few hundred million eyeballs that you hope will turn into search volume? Yahoo shares ended trading on Friday at $9.39, 70% down on the original Microsoft bid of $31 per share.

On a random aside, the first trademark request for Kumo as a search engine was filed by a Venezuelan individual. Yet another reason why this name might not ever make it out into the public eye on a Microsoft product.

So technical issues around results, relevancy and features aside, would Kumo make a better brand name than Live Search? Does Kumo have the potential marketing strength that is needed to challenge Google? We’re not sure, but hey these Live Search branding posts definitely give us food for thought.

For some background to this post, see Kip’s Codename Rome + new search brand posts from earlier this year, or Scoble’s video interview.

Latest LiveSide posts tagged Live Search

New Mobile Search Release

Sunshine — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:18:00 GMT

Phil reports that the mobile search team has been working hard, getting ready for a new release of the browser service: http://m.live.com. This service works on every mobile phone that has a browser.

So what’s in this release?

- Optimized experience for the iPhone
- Product Search (US only), compare products and prizes on the go.
- Directions: besides driving directions there’s also walking directions (US, UK, France and Italy only at the moment)

- A more personalized mobile experience: save your frequently visited locations via ZIP codes. Quickly check out the weather, traffic or find which movie to see.
- xRank (US and China): check out the latest news, and pictures, about your favorite celebrity, politician or musician.

Thanks Phil for the update. All this is available if you navigate to m.live.com on your mobile phone.

Messenger email: more hints at a Windows Live Search rebrand (UPDATED)

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:24:20 GMT

3 weeks ago we wrote about some interesting tidbits that seemed to hint at a new name for Live Search: Windows Live Search. While the sources appeared to be legitimate, we stopped short of proclaiming a name change, and we’re not ready to call it a done deal even yet. However have come across some more fuel to add to the fire, thanks to tipster Andyman, who forwarded us an email from “communications_msn_cs_enuk *at* microsoft *dot* msn *dot* com” (loving those tips, keep em coming!). In a marketing email touting the new Hotmail and the Messenger beta among other things, the new-name-that-has-yet-to-be-named popped up again:

Since the email, which by all appearances, links, etc., seems legitimate (anyone else in the UK get this?), and since the material is topical and new, referencing the new Hotmail and the Messenger beta, it’s doubtful that this is just old material resurfacing, or a hoax. It’s much more likely that either a new name change is coming, or that Microsoft’s marketing is as confused as the rest of us about the revolving door naming policies surrounding Windows Live.

For what it’s worth, we’re all for a return to the Windows Live Search name. Even though internally Live Search remains separate from Windows Live (and we’re hearing that there are no immediate plans to change that), consolidating the brand externally just seems like the right thing to do. We expect a big marketing push for Windows 7 and Windows Live leading up to next year’s back to school and holiday shopping season, and Live Search is sorely in need of all the marketing help it can get.

UPDATE: Just received an email from a Microsoft spokesperson from the UK, who says the email is in error, and there are no current plans to change the name. Here’s the statement:

There are no current plans to change the Live Search Brand to Windows Live Search. The inclusion of Windows Live Search in a recent Microsoft communication was an error and will be corrected in an upcoming newsletter to the same distribution list. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

We’ll leave it at that for now, and leave you to decide what to make of it all.

Search Within Office 2007 Documents: Filter Pack For Windows Search

Sunshine — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:18:00 GMT

Windows Search 4 already is an improvement over the standard Windows Search, but did you know you can search inside Office 2007 documents too?

I sure didn’t, Sarah Perez (on 10) does:

With the the Microsoft Filter Pack installed, Windows Search 4.0 is able to search within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office 2007 documents based on the text they contain. It also works for Vista too, adding new search capabilities which can be accessed right from Vista’s search bar. Now when you do a search, the Windows indexing service doesn’t just search for file names but also knows what’s in the files themselves, and that makes finding the right file so much easier.

Very handy, thanks Sarah!

The 2007 Office System Converter: Microsoft Filter Pack, will install and register IFilters with the Windows Indexing Service. These IFilters are used by Microsoft Search products to index the contents of specific document formats. This Filter Pack includes IFilters for the following formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx. It is supported on Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Windows Desktop Search (WDS) consumes IFilters from Windows Indexing Service, so the IFilters will be automatically registered and available for use by WDS. If you want to register these filters with another specific Search product ( Office Sharepoint Server 2007, Search Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, SQL server etc.), have a look at the KB articles provided on the download page.

Download Windows Search 4
Download Microsoft Filter Pack

Live Search joins the Olympics

damaster — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:20:00 GMT

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to begin in less than 24 hours, Live Search decides to join the game by providing the following Olympics-related features, all set to go live by Friday 08/08/08:

The Live Search homepage, with the recent addition of rotating background images with hotspots, will feature Olympics images for the duration of the games
Live Search News will feature the Olympics 2008 news vertical which gives readers up-to-date coverage with additional elements such as Olympics 2008 news images
Live Search xRank will have a new Olympian section for fans to track the popularity of their favourite athletes
Live Search Video will feature Olympics videos when users type in the query "Olympics"
Athlete Instant Answer will feature profiles of Olympians as searchers type in the first and last names of the athlete in search queries. For example, users can search for “Shawn Johnson” or “LeBron James”
Medal Count Instant Answer will provide an all up medal count by country, sport, or by country and sport when searchers type in Olympics-related keywords in search queries. For example, users can search for terms like "Olympics swimming" or "Olympics China"

Also note that all of the features mentioned above will be available in the United States, while Athlete Instant Answer and Medal Count Instant Answer will only be available in selected countries and regions.

Thanks to Neowin for the heads up.

Microsoft releases public beta of Windows Search 4.0

Chris — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:25:51 GMT

Microsoft has just released a public beta of Windows Search 4.0, an update to the existing search technologies in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The knowledge base article lists the main updates as:

Support for the Encrypting File System (EFS)
Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations (ie you can search other PCs running Windows Search 4.0)
Improved indexing performance
Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
Per-user Group Policy settings
Windows software updates for Watson errors
Support for the following new enterprise Group Policy objects:

While this is definitely an update aimed at the enterprise market, most probably removing some disincentives for adoption of Windows Vista too, there are some significant performance benefits to be had for consumers as well.

Installation on Vista took me just a few minutes, and after a reboot the first thing you'll notice is that nothing has changed. No new icon in the system tray, no splash screen on startup, nadda. You'll know something is different when you start a search from the taskbar, as results load significantly quicker. ~~Unfortunately I'm unable to search for music files at the moment, but hey that's why the beta tag is on.~~ If you have your personal folders (Documents/Music etc) mapped to another location, you’ll need to manually add it to the indexer via the Control Panel (thanks Brandon).

This technology is something we've spoken about before over a year ago when Steve Ballmer demoed it as Windows Live Search Center. (Quick recap, it was also called OneView and Casino). As Microsoft PR tell MJF, Windows Search 4 provides an "update to Windows search functionality, while Casino was a research project." It just happened to be a research project demoed at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

Download Windows Search 4.0 Preview

Microsoft SearchTogether

Sunshine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:50:36 GMT

In my article Tafiti and Windows Live Quick Apps, I told you how you can do a search project with one, or more, of your live Messenger contacts with Tafiti search Visualisation. There's another method to search together coming this Spring, it is called Microsoft SearchTogether.

Microsoft SearchTogether is a free Internet Explorer 7 plug-in which will allow you to search various search engines (Windows Live Search, Yahoo!, Google etc.) together. Features are group query histories, split searching, page-level rating and commenting, automatically-generated shared summaries, peek-and-follow browsing, and integrated chat at the bottom of the browser. More about installing and these features can be found in the tutorial.

SearchTogether will be available for download this Spring at http://research.microsoft.com/searchtogether/ and was shown at Microsoft's annual TechFest by Microsoft Research.

Yahoo! snags exclusive T-Mobile search rights in Europe

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:14:40 GMT

Hoo boy another press release (via BetaNews)! This time it's Yahoo! announcing an exclusive deal with T-Mobile in Europe to use Yahoo! oneSearch as its exclusive search provider. While of course this fits into the realm of Windows Live news by way of the "elephant in the room", it is also good news for Windows Live fans in that it snatches some significant business away from Google, who had been providing search to T-Mobile in the 11 European markets to millions of users. From the press release:

This announcement builds on the steady stream of Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships announced over the course of the last 13 months. In early 2007, Yahoo! reinvented the mobile search experience with the introduction of Yahoo! oneSearch, a search experience specifically designed for the mobile phone that delivers relevant results and instant answers in a user-friendly interface, removing the need for consumers to navigate through a sea of PC Web links. Since introducing Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! has announced partnership agreements with more than 29 leading mobile operators and more than 600 million mobile subscribers around the world.

In an interesting sidelight, Valleywag is reporting on Jerry Wang's "secret plan" to revamp Yahoo!, which may be finding Yahoo! making significant progress only to hand it over to Microsoft:

Microsoft's bid came at a bad time for Yang, since some of the projects are bearing fruit and he had hoped to launch them as soon as this month. For Yang, it's a big bet -- his own version of Panama, the massive project to revamp Yahoo's ad platform. Of course, that doesn't bode well for Yang's efforts, since the delays in Panama were one of the factors that depressed Yahoo's stock price, opening the door for Microsoft.

Yang may well be overoptimistic. But his enthusiasm for Yahoo's secret technology has to factor into his thinking. Will a new developer platform really make Yahoo worth $40 a share overnight? Unlikely. But Yang must believe that what Yahoo has created in the last four months is worth more than Microsoft's dealmakers counted on.

MSN/Live market share declines slightly in January, Yahoo! more than that, according to Compete.com

Kip Kniskern — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:09:50 GMT

The latest search market share numbers for January show a slight decline for MSN/Live Search, a nosedive for Yahoo!, and more steady increases for Google, according to an entry in the Compete.com blog.

We compared Compete, Nielsen, and Hitwise for the search market shares in 2007, and they all seem to have their own take on things, so we will see what the other numbers show, but clearly business as usual is becoming less of an option for either Microsoft or Yahoo! if they wish to compete with Google.

Like Compete.com, we're interested to see what all the talk of a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! does to the February numbers.

Microsoft, Yahoo!, the merger and Google - Search

Sunshine — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:05:00 GMT

Lots of talk about the Microsoft proposal to Yahoo. Google has made an offer to Yahoo! now too. Looks like the battle over Yahoo! and it's services has begun. Let us take a look at Search.

Search - December 2007	Microsoft	Yahoo	Google
Searches million/share percentage	1,940/2.9	8,505/12.8	41,345/62.4
	source	source	source

Search: Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, MSN, Academic, Classifieds, Feeds, Spaces, Macros

Search: Web, Images, Video, Local, Shopping, Answers, Audio, Directory, Jobs, News

Search: Web, Images, Maps, News, Video, Groups, Books, Scholar, Blogs

In this area, does Google really have to be scared about a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo!? Looking at the numbers Microsoft will have to fight really hard to become the number 1, but how about the features? What do you think?

Microsoft bids $1.2bln to acquire FAST Search and Transfer

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:03:18 GMT

Microsoft announced today plans to acquire Norwegian enterprise search leader FAST for about $1.2 billion US dollars cash, or a 42% premium on the company's current price on the Norwegian stock market. FAST is a leader in the enterprise search space, includes among its assets a highly talented workforce, and has recently been branching out into mobile and web search, including advertising solutions.

While Microsoft will use the acquisition to bolster its enterprise search offerings, which can offer a whole different set of challenges from consumer based web search, the Norwegian company's multiple offerings should help to bolster Live Search, as well. Microsoft plans to use the acquisition to bolster enterprise search through its Sharepoint Server offerings, according to the Microsoft press release, issued this morning:

The companies possess a number of complementary strengths that advance a shared vision for helping businesses deliver information worker productivity and improved business results. FAST has a deep talent pool and is respected throughout the technology industry for its expertise in best-in-class, high-end search solutions. Microsoft offers worldwide customer reach and an extensive partner network, and is the recognized leader in business productivity with the popular Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, which combines search with best-in-class collaboration, business intelligence, portal and content management capabilities.

“This acquisition gives FAST an exciting way to spread our cutting-edge search technologies and innovations to more and more organizations across the world,” said John Lervik, CEO of FAST. “By joining Microsoft, we can benefit from the momentum behind the SharePoint business productivity platform to really empower a broader set of users through Microsoft’s strong sales and marketing network. It validates FAST’s momentum and leadership in enterprise search.”