MSN joins web search war with release

Reed Stevenson

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. unveiled the full-release version of its search engine, turning up the heat on Web search leader Google Inc.

The world's largest software maker also revamped its MSN.com Web portal www.msn.com to make its search engine more prominent and also tweaked the site's content and advertising to remove clutter, said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's vice president in charge of content and services at the MSN Internet division.

At stake are advertising dollars as well as bragging rights in one of the technology industry's more interesting growth areas.

"We really are about answers and not about links," Mehdi told Reuters, taking a swipe at MSN Search's nearest competitors, who also include Yahoo Inc.

"There's a huge amount of room for improvement in online searches," Mehdi said.

To make answers to factual questions more relevant, Mehdi said MSN Search would include the full range of information contained in Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft's electronic encyclopedia.

Users will be able to get definitions, calculations, geographical and historical information, and other information, and also view encyclopedia articles and content for any two-hour session via MSN Search.

"We aim to have an answer for every query," Mehdi said.






Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft decided nearly two years ago to build its own search engine after seeing Google take the lead and profit from the billions that advertisers pay to have their own ads displayed alongside search results.

Since then, Google has gone public and Yahoo has beefed up its own search offerings as both company's face the prospect of competing against Microsoft and its deep pockets and army of software engineers.

The launch of MSN Search comes three months after the release of an initial beta, or test version. Microsoft had been using Yahoo unit Inktomi to power its search services, but will no longer do so with the full release of its search engine, which uses Microsoft's own technology to sift through the Web.

Microsoft's new search engine will be culling results from a database index of more than five billion Web documents and pages. Google's index database is more than eight billion pages.

Microsoft has also integrated results that link directly into its MSN Music service, which was launched in September of last year.

One new capability that Microsoft will be introducing with Monday's launch is the ability to create RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, feeds that allows users to track search results through an incoming data feed on their personal computers.

Mehdi also said that Microsoft would market its search engine through a marketing campaign directed at online users as well as television viewers. He did not disclose any projections for advertising spending.