Saying it wants to help you get faster, cleaner, and easier access to what you're searching for, Microsoft has unwrapped new and updated services for MSN Search, including a revamp of the search engine and the launch of a new, homegrown search tool by year's end.
The company said June 30 these developments were part of a $100 million investment in heightening Netizens' search experience, a move seen by many as a further indication Microsoft has no intention of shying away from challenging search kings Google and Yahoo and staking its own certain place in the Internet search world.
The upgrade to MSN Search includes a new homepage with easier navigation to MSN services like Hotmail, Messenger, news, sports, weather, entertainment, and stock information; a new, cleaner look for the results pages; separating algorithmic results from paid results links and doing away with paid inclusion; and direct access to information sources like Encarta, Microsoft said.
"With this significant upgrade to MSN Search, we are delighted to now offer what we believe is the best search service available for the 350 million MSN customers," MSN corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi said announcing the new search revamps. "Among the many improvements, we're particularly excited to increase the relevancy of many search query results by up to 45 percent. This massive investment kicks off a wave of innovation from MSN that will move search beyond its current, limited offering to delivering the next-generation search experience."
The discontinuing of paid inclusion for search results may prove temporary in the end, the company suggested, depending on further evaluations of the potential for paid inclusion to improve relevancy for MSN customers. In late June, AskJeeves.com discontinued a paid inclusion program, while Yahoo said they were mulling whether to do away with theirs. Google has rejected paid inclusion programs, for the same reason AskJeeves discontinued theirs: too much potential to skew search results.
Starting June 30, MSN links paid for by advertisers would be displayed in shaded boxes, identifying them clearly with Sponsored Sites headings, Microsoft said, letting surfers choose clearly between algorithmic and sponsored links. The company said that change alone triggered a "dramatically increased" customer usage, "because the clearly differentiated sections for algorithmic results and sponsored links give them a clear understanding and choice of results. People using the new design in beta testing spent 42 percent more minutes using the MSN Search service, and queries per user increased by 36 percent."
