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October 4, 2007

Microsoft Adds SEM Services to Office Live

Microsoft has added a search engine marketing offering to the suite of services available to its Microsoft Office Live Small Business subscribers. Through a partnership with The Search Agency, a Santa Monica-based SEM firm, Microsoft's customers, typically very small businesses with less than 10 employees, can sign up for three levels of service ranging from online training to full service campaign management.

"The needs of entrepreneurs in this space are very diverse. Some are do-it-yourself oriented, and want to learn to do everything, while others want to completely offload certain aspects of their business to vendors," said Louise Rasho, senior manager of marketing communications for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. "Then there are the folks in the middle, who need consultative help getting started, so they can take over from there."

Microsoft already offers a service for the DIY set: the adManager service that allows subscribers to buy and manage PPC ads from Microsoft Windows Live Search and Ask Sponsored Listings. For the hands-off approach, Microsoft has an existing arrangement with Website Pros to handle full-service Web development and search needs.

The new services from The Search Agency will fit the needs of those users at either end, as well as those who fall somewhere in the middle, Rasho said.

The first service, TSA Learn, consists of three online training modules that teach the essentials of SEM and search engine optimization (SEO). Next is TSA Launch, a selection of more than 20 one-off, a la carte SEM and SEO services. For example, a user can fill out a questionnaire about their business and get a list of potential keywords to use in their search campaign, or enter their existing keywords and get a list of expanded keywords to consider. The third offering is TSA Grow, which is a full-service option where The Search Agency manages all search marketing activities for the subscriber.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:42 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2007

Universal Search Coming to Microsoft's Live Search

In a blog post last Thursday, originally described by the press as a leak, Akram Hussein, Program Manager of Windows Live Platform, detailed a number of new features of Windows Live Search 2.0 that are expected to be rolled out on September 26th at Microsoftâ€™s Searchification 2007.

Searchification 2007 is a halfâ€“day event that will include a general session with senior product leaders, demos, and a webmaster tools session. In a later blog post Hussein clarified that his post was not a leak but rather the result of the confluence of an early test rollout and an astute and enthusiastic user.

All of the cloak and dagger, leaky plumbing stuff aside, here are some of the features that early test users (Akram Hussein) have spotted. Although he removed his original post, Liveside.net captured the changes already being tested â€œlive,â€ so to speak.

They are yet another spin on universal search. For example, images and news will be moved directly onto the search page along with product popularity ratings and reviews for products pulled from review sites. Searches for people will include more search results, images, and a celebrity rating. Searchers will soon be able to see just how â€œhotâ€ or â€œnotâ€ those headline-grabbing celebs really are.

Where there is video, it will begin to play a preview as soon as the mouse is rolled over it without the usual delay. This feature should appeal to the growing number of video enthusiasts.

Overall there will be more search results found. Do note that more search results do not necessarily translate to more relevant search results. That is to be seen as more users come in contact with this new version of Live Search 2.0. For search marketers, this is yet another example of why it is important to optimize all types of Web files â€“ images, news, video, and audio.

Posted by amandawatlington at 9:45 AM | Permalink

July 25, 2007

SEW Experts: Turning Local Inside Out

In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Turning Local Inside Out," Kevin Ryan takes a look at what local search looks like today, and why one-stop technology and search providers have an advantage over the big sales forces and more heavily regulated telephone directory advertising..

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

July 17, 2007

Microsoft Adds Ask Sponsored Listings to Office Live Ad Management

Microsoft has added Ask Sponsored Listings to its adManager service on the Office Live platform. Using adManager, small businesses can buy and manage search ads from a simplified interface. Previously, the ad options were Microsoft's MSN Network and Live Search.

"This is one of the first times you've had search engines joining together to meet the needs for small businesses," Michael Schultz, U.S. business and marketing lead for Microsoft Office Live, told ClickZ News. "What's significant about Ask.com getting together with Microsoft Office Live, is we're actually making it simple and easy for small business to understand and take advantage of search marketing. To be able to do things like contextual targeting opens up another avenue to allow small businesses to get their message out."

Schultz also said the deal was in the works before former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz left to join Microsoft 15 months ago.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:14 AM | Permalink

May 16, 2007

Start.com Stopped

Microsoft is shuttering Start.com, its experimental interface launched in February 2005 that developed many of the features that ended up in the Live.com start page. According to a blog post by Sanaz Ahari, lead program manager for Live Search, the project is being terminated, with Start.com to be redirected to Live.com starting next week.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:54 AM | Permalink

March 14, 2007

Lenovo to Pre-Load Windows Live Toolbar

Microsoft announced its first major distribution deal for Windows Live services, including desktop access to the Windows Live portal and a pre-loaded Windows Live toolbar on Lenovo's ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCentre desktops, and Lenovo-branded PCs. Lenovo became the world's third-largest computer maker when it acquired IBM's PC unit in 2005, and the IBM logo still appears on the ThinkPad and ThinkCentre products outside China.

The deal will introduce new Lenovo customers to Live.com, and Microsoft is betting that many of those users will not change their default settings to another home page or search engine. Lenovo previously had a similar deal with Google, which this deal will apparently replace, according to a Bloomberg report. Justin Osmer, a senior product manager at Microsoft, said the deal is exclusive for several years. He also said other such deals are in the works, and will be announced in coming months.

Google struck up a similar deal with Dell in May 2006, which pre-loaded Google's toolbar and desktop search with a co-branded homepage. Microsoft had been in the running for that deal as well, but opted out when the price got too high, according to Osmer.

"We are not in the business to lose money hand over fist, year after year, so these have to make fiscal sense to us," Osmer told Bloomberg. "The Dell example is one where it ballooned to a point where it did not make any sense to play in that sandbox, so we let that one go."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:36 AM | Permalink

January 25, 2007

Microsoft Selling Ads on Live Online

Microsoft is going to run PPC ads on the Live Online site, according to an email sent out today.

The funny part is the difference in the MSN voice as opposed to Google's or Yahoo's.

The pitch includes this gem: Would you be interested in being one of the first-ever advertisers on one of the world's largest Web sites (1)? And reaching an elusive, affluent audience?

The email continues:

Microsoft(r) Office Online, one of the most popular areas of the Microsoft.com site, is now open to advertisers.

What is Office Online? It is the online extension of the Office product suite which includes Word(r), PowerPoint(r), and Excel(r). This is the site where at-work professionals improve their productivity using clip art, presentation templates, and other Office add-ons and services.

With an advertising campaign on Office Online, you can:

- Reach a large, professional audience Office Online attracts a large number of professionals Business Professionals, Business Decision Makers, and Small and Medium-sized businesses.

- Impact a highly engaged audience Office Online users are actively seeking information. They're highly engaged with our content, spending a significant amount of time on the site. They'll be well exposed to your ad in a clean, clutter-free environment.

- Communicate to an at-work audience Office Online is a haven for the elusive at-work audience, which is otherwise a challenge to reach.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 2:04 PM | Permalink

January 3, 2007

Windows Live for TV Enters Public Beta

Microsoft's blog/IM/chat search with a TV interface, Windows Live for TV, has entered into beta. It seems that the former Project Nemo has gone live in the last week or so, and was spotted today by the folks over at LiveSide.

The interface allows users to search Windows Live Spaces blogs, either with keyword searches or through gallery views. users can also use Messenger and Live Call via a remote-control interface. It apparently won't work with Windows Media Center XP, but will require Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate RC2

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:22 PM | Permalink

November 16, 2006

Sprint Launches Mobile Search Relationship With Microsoft

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint has launched mobile (local) search has part of a broad new strategic relationship with Microsoft, "allowing its subscribers to use their phones to look up information on local businesses and events and find downloadable multimedia content such as ringtones, videos and games." (Here's the Microsoft release.)

According to the article, the new Microsoft-powered search will appear on the "home page of Sprint's browser." The local search component of the partnership will be monetized with advertising. But there's ambiguity in the way the WSJ describes the ad model and I haven't yet had a chance to discuss this with either party.

Here's how the WSJ describes the advertising aspect of the deal. "The local-search component offers a new revenue stream as well: Businesses can bid to be listed as sponsored links in the local-search directory and will pay a fee when consumers click those links to call them through the service."

So the clicks initiate phone calls to merchants. Whether these placements will be separately auctioned and billed as "calls" or as "clicks" is not clear. I'm assuming this is PPCall advertising and will be priced accordingly.

Microsoft is currently monetizing local search online at MSN search and Live Local through its relationship with SuperPages.com, which includes local PPC and PPCall advertisers. It separately has an exclusive relationship with Ingenio to provide PPCall advertisers for the mobile version of Live.com. Whether advertisers in the Sprint deal are being provided via either or both of those Microsoft relationships is not clear at this moment.

Regardless, the move will likely boost AdCenter's fortunes in the near-to-medium term, with Sprint as a mobile distribution partner. It also further solidifies PPCall as an ad vehicle well suited to mobile.

Sprint has an existing mobile local search relationship with InfoSpace, whose downloadable FindIt application works with Java-enabled Sprint GPS phones. Recently, Sprint also announced a deal with Google's new Java-based "GMail for mobile" initiative. But this is a broader and deeper involvement with Microsoft at the level of the carrier deck.

The WSJ article discusses some of the other partnerships between U.S. carriers and mobile search vendors, such as JumpTap and Medio Systems.

If one steps back, what may now be emerging is a kind of mobile search/feature war among the carriers that may trump their collective concern about being relegated to "dumb pipe" status. Sprint has apparently thrown that conventional wisdom to the wind in its most recent announcements with Google and now Microsoft. The emphasis seems, instead, to be on providing the best mobile search and user experience -- as it should be -- in their competition with other carriers for customer acquisition and loyalty.

There's something of an irony here in that on Windows Mobile smartphones (I have the Sprint PPC-6700) the mobile IE browser is the focus of the mobile Web-search experience. In that context, the mobile search experience is much more a duplication â€“ albeit comparatively weak â€“ of the online experience. What that means is the Window Mobile OS (on smartphones) is likely to merely replicate the market position of Google (or Yahoo) rather than boost Live.com or this new Microsoft-powered Sprint mobile search.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 2:34 AM | Permalink

November 8, 2006

Google's SearchMash Gets Features & Microsoft's Sexy, Experimental Ms. Dewey Search

Google's experimental search engine SearchMash has gained some new features while the sexy Ms. Dewey search engine is now outed as Microsoft's experimental search engine.

Ms. Dewey came to light last month. I spotted it via the Google Operating System blog, checked it out and promptly dissed it as a waste of time at the end of a Daily SearchCast episode on Oct. 16.

The site features an attractive woman who stands above a search box:

She makes funny jokes from a set repertoire. My favorite is when she raps on the glass of monitor to get your attention, if you don't do something after awhile:

If you don't do anything, you eventually find her telling you:

Hello. Type Something Here

If you don't get a move on, another chuckle. But how about the search features? OK. I entered:

who won the elections today

I got told (in words on the screen, not by her):

Ms. Dewey is thinking

Then after literally a minute, I finally got my answers:

The answers come from Windows Live Search. Over there, they come up in three seconds. For the minute Ms. Dewey took, I got nothing special in return. She doesn't read the results to you, nor make them better. She's kind of funny, but not funny enough for me to spend more than a search or two with her. Then the novelty is gone. So go have fun, but I doubt you or anyone will be spending tons of quality time with her.

When I first saw the site, I had no idea who was behind it. Then yesterday, AP had a story, On the Net: Searching With Ms. Dewey, explaining that Microsoft was behind the site and put it out there hoping it gets "discovered."

Discovered, yes. Bemused, yes. Routinely used, I doubt it.

Less sexy but more functional, Google's experimental SearchMash site that we covered last month has gained some new features. Again, a nice catch via Google Operating System.

In Ionut Alex's example over there for a search for magic, a new refinement area shows up at the top of the page suggesting another query (and some related results) to try:

Using the "show details" option, this box can be made bigger. For most queries, I found it doesn't appear at all.

Meanwhile, the main box with search results can be made smaller, condensing the results by using "hide details" option:

Image results now move to the bottom of the page, while two new boxes show up where images used to be on the right hand side. One of these can be expanded to show Wikipedia results:

The other is already open and asks for feedback.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:23 AM | Permalink

In The Election Results Race, Yahoo's The Winner

Like many Americans, I wanted to know what was up with the vote in the US midterm elections this morning. As a search analyst, I then wanted to know how the search engines performed in helping me find out. The results are in! Yahoo's the winner by far, but I'd still take the New York Times over it. Come along for an illustrated tour.

Google told us last month that Google Earth was all geared up to be an election guide. That's great if you've downloaded Google Earth and wanted to learn more before the election. But how about a quick, fast summary of what happened yesterday? What's Google got for us?

The Google home page is as minimal as always, no help there -- not even a special logo as in the 2004 race.

How about a search for "election results," which I think is a fair query to try. After all, using Google Trends, I can see a huge spike for that term after the last elections in the US:

I also checked the volume for just "results," and that was even higher whereas "elections" was much lower (see them all compared here). So my two queries for this test were "election results" and "results." On Google, both disappointed.

Here are election results on Google:

CNN's top with 2004 results! I know -- web search is always behind the times. That's why Google inserts that big news results OneBox unit above the regular results. Let's click on the main news link there, which takes us to news results:

Pretty bad. News about the dollar, stock prices -- but who won?!!! I've got to really work to figure this out, especially compared to the New York Times, as I'll show at the end of this story.

Maybe I head to the actual Google News home page:

Nope. I get some headlines telling me about the Democratic house victory, but it could be much better.

FYI, checking on a search for just results, I don't even get the news headlines inserted. Overall, I found Google to be a pretty poor resource.

How about Yahoo? The home page there immediately gives you some news:

If I actually gravitate to the picture and resist the pull of the search box, the "Full elections coverage" link takes me to a Full Coverage page with lots of info, including an interactive results page (my link takes that out of the normal pop-up box, but it still works great):

This is very, very nice. I can see at a glance who is ahead in the race for control of the US House Of Representatives, plus with a click I can check out the Senate or governor races. Selecting any state also gives me the information about races with that state.

I love this. It very similar to what impressed me at the New York Times. I hope Yahoo searchers found it. However, I suspect many bypassed it. To understand why, let's do that search for election results:

Similar to Google, Yahoo inserts a big "News Results" shortcut unit above the regular results, to help detour searchers into the freshest results. Of course, searcers might bypass that. If so, unlike Google, Yahoo has managed to get the CNN 2006 results page up rather than the CNN 2004 page. Nice. After that, there's Fox News 2006. But c'mon -- Yahoo's own special election results are third. This is one case where I'd totally applaud a little hand manipulation to get that to the top, especially to highlight that interactive results summary page.

Still, the web search results for this particular day at Yahoo far outshine Google. That's almost certainly due to some human editing, which is fine. Along with the sites I've mentioned, you get the New York Times politics page, USA Today's politics page, C-SPAN's 2006 results page, the ABC News politics page, CBS News's 2006 page, politics from the LA Times, then the Washington Post's 2006 results page. All of these are excellent choices. If Yahoo did human intervention to make this happen, kudos to them. You can check out a snapshot of the entire page here.

Over at Google, nothing is either timely or general enough. The Virginia state election board, California election info, assorted things dating from 2004 -- then oddly Virginia and California get another bump for their 2006 pages. Ugh. See the entire list in the snapshot here.

What happens if we detour into the news area that Yahoo promotes at the top of the page? Disappointment:

Yes, relevant news stories. And the image results to the side are kind of fun. But some hand help could have made a difference. How about a promo for that awesome election map of Yahoo's?

Let's go over to Ask, where I had high hopes. Ask has made a big deal of its special Smart Answers for the election, and they are cool. But will I see them? Yes, if I search for election:

I'd also get to this box if I went to the Ask home page and clicked on the Election Day link there:

But for election results (what I believe to be the more popular query), all I get is a small news unit:

The news unit will take me over to some news results, but like Yahoo's, these aren't thrilling. It's pick and choose through what you want, rather than any type of easy overview. As for a search on just results, that doesn't even bring back the news unit at all.

The overall web search results, similar to Google, are underwhelming. Nothing really helpful for the 2006 results pops up (see the full results in the snapshot here).

Even the special Smart Answers box, had it shown up, isn't that helpful for what I want now -- RESULTS! None of the featured links with it takes me to results.

Microsoft, what have you got for me at Windows Live Search? On the home page, nothing. For search on election results, it's disappointing old or non-targeted results (screenshot here). Unlike the others, there are no news results inserted above these. A search for just results is no better. If I specifically try a news search for election results, as with the others, there's no attempt to get me a comprehensive overview. It's up to me to review each story and hope for a good match.

Ironically, at the largely overshadowed MSN site, similar to Yahoo, I get a big election photo on the home page along with links, including one called "state-by-state results" that leads to MSNBC here. And over there is a pretty neat "Democracy Dashboard" giving me that type of overview I wanted:

It's a pity Windows Live didn't reach out to either MSN or MSNBC and do something special to point to this or somehow integrate it into the results.

What about AOL? From the home page, it's pretty easy to spot a link to a AOL election page with results for the House, Senate and more:

Searching for election results brings back disappointing Google listings in the main results. However, the new FullView column does a good job of dividing news into elections overall, US Senate coverage, US House coverage and more. And clicking on any of the "View all" links brings up the special AOL election page (see the full page here).

Now to the New York Times. I headed over there pretty much by chance. There are any number of newspapers I might of thought of off the top of my head, and usually its my original home town paper of the Los Angeles Times. But I hit the NY Times today, and boy was I glad.

Right on the home page, above the "fold" is an easy-to-spot election map. In seconds, it organized the most important information I was looking for into a way for me to know what was going on:

Drilling into the full map was even better. There, I could click on any state -- in particular the undecided ones -- and see the current situation:

Just when I was thinking "what if," I saw the "Create Outcomes" tab where I could click on a state and flip it to the Democrats or the Republicans to see how it might go with the Senate. Outstanding!

Other newspapers or web sites might have done as well with similar displays. If so, my apologies that this wasn't a review of the best election results sites. Instead, it was really meant to see how well the search engines held up as information resources for this particular news event.

Overall, I've written many times before that there's a role humans can play in search results. Today -- this was a perfect example of that. Yahoo almost certainly put some human effort into crafting results, and it was the clear victor in terms of quality of what was coming up in web search listings. AOL comes in second, again where human effort has helped its FullView listings help make up for the poor crawler-based results from Google.

In third, I put Google and Ask. Google's results were poor, but at least it floated some news results that may have helped. Ask, I was rooting for. But that Smart Answers box simply wasn't showing up for the queries I thought people were doing. Even if people were getting it for "election," it wasn't helpful to get election results. I really appreciate the effort, and if this had been for something other than actual results, Ask would have been great. In last place -- Windows Live.

This campaign of sorts is also one of those classic "what if" races. With just a little more effort, Yahoo would have had a landslide victory by getting people to its great overview page. The same is true for AOL. Ask, with just a bit more thought, could have had that box coming up for "election results" rather than just "elections" and added some links to get people to actual results. Windows Live, if it had remembered its MSN origins, might not be in last. And Google? A company that's all about organizing information might not have put in such a poor performance if it used some human power in the way the New York Times did.

Postscript: See also Case Study: Digg Versus Google News Traffic from me on my personal blog that covers how this article ultimately brought in lots of traffic from Google News from those unable to find election results there, along with lots of other data and a comparison to traffic from a top story at Digg on the same day.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:17 AM | Permalink

October 27, 2006

Windows Live Mobile Now Live

Gary Price reports that Windows Live Mobile is now live at http://mobile.live.com/.

The features include: 1) Mail 2) Search beta 3) Spaces 4) Local 5) Messenger 6) Live.com beta 7) MSN.com beta 8) MSNBC News 9) FOX Sports 10) Weather 11) Money 12) Entertainment 13) MSN Calendar

More details at http://mobile.live.com/GoLive/.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:10 AM | Permalink

October 25, 2006

Microsoft Removes Belgian Content Without Court Order

The Register writes Microsoft dodges court in Belgian copyright battle where they say Microsoft decided not to go to court over Belgian newspapers request for them to remove their content from their index. Google was ordered to remove the content by a Belgian court and then later lost an appeal on the same case. Microsoft simply did not want to fight them and decided to just grant the wishes of the cease and desist letter sent to them.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:08 AM | Permalink

September 12, 2006

Windows Live Local Better, But Still Not There

Windows Live Local (WLL) came out of beta today along with Live.com and Live Search. Chris Sherman covered the full upgrade and release in his Search Day article. This post will focus on WLL specifically.

Derrick Connell, Microsoft's search business general manager, is quoted as saying that 15% to 20% of search queries are local. (While this estimate may be slighly low, it would mean somewhere between 975 million and 1.3 billion U.S. search queries per month (across all engines) had a local intent. This shows what's at stake in having a good user experience and being able to monetize those queries.

WLL's primary attraction remains its spectacular "Birdseye" aerial photography, which hasn't been duplicated by its competitors. In this release there's about 30% more Birdseye coverage in the US, with an ongoing effort to cover most population centers in the US, UK and EU in the near term.

The WLL team has also beefed up the "details" page for individual businesses with Web search results. Formerly there was only basic contact information and a map. Beyond this, since the last time I wrote about WLL, there haven't been any significant upgrades. Here are the three most recent posts about Live Local and its features:

The aerial photography is great for pinpointing on precisely which corner the W Hotel is located in San Francisco. The Scratch Pad and Collections are very nice (and unique) ways to save and share map data. And the layered results are also useful. Yet there are other areas where Live Local could improve:

Offer reviews and other features to help users make decisions. (Among the big three Yahoo! is the most helpful here, allowing users to sort/refine by rating, location or other criteria.)
Do more passive disambiguation so that users don't have to clarify otherwise self-evident locations (e.g., "SF, CA" means "San Francisco")
Be able to handle non-traditional searches such as "great bars in New York." Windows Live Search does a much better job on this query than WLL

Having said all that, WLL has come a great distance in its short life and we expect Microsoft to continue to make investments to make the product and the user experience better as a integral "vertical" within Live Search.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 5:39 AM | Permalink

July 14, 2006

Caffeine and Tin Foil At Windows Live Search

What do Microsoft Interns, birthdays, caffeine and tin foil have to do with each other? Well, nothing. But at Microsoft, they have tin foiled and over caffeinated an Intern in the Windows Live Search group. Check out this picture of the Intern sitting at his desk, with his computer wrapped up in tin foil and with 99 cans of Cherry Coke. Why did they do this to that Intern?

They didn't want me to do any work on birthday, so they unplugged my computer and its many peripherals and wrapped them in foil along with pretty much everything else in my office. The soda cans I did to myself (thanks Microsoft for free soda) but the Dixie-cups full of diluted Cherry Coke were part of the "upgrade."

And you thought only Google and Yahoo had fun with search. I guess Bill can get down with it also.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:50 AM | Permalink

Caffeine and Tin Foil At Windows Live Search

And you thought only Google and Yahoo had fun with search. I guess Bill can get down with it also.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:50 AM | Permalink

Caffeine and Tin Foil At Windows Live Search

And you thought only Google and Yahoo had fun with search. I guess Bill can get down with it also.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:50 AM | Permalink

Caffeine and Tin Foil At Windows Live Search

And you thought only Google and Yahoo had fun with search. I guess Bill can get down with it also.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:50 AM | Permalink

July 11, 2006

Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets

Gary Price points to two Windows Live blog posts including, search/personalized toggle and now in 34 new markets. The first describes how you can now toggle between search and personalized experience. Your last selection will be remembered for your next session. The blog says that this "replaces our old 'hide' option, with a much improved experience in 'search only' mode that is faster and includes search filters." Windows Live also entered 34 new markets including;

China – Simplified Chinese
Netherlands – Dutch
Belgium – French
Belgium – Dutch
Brazil – Brazilian Portuguese
Denmark – Danish
India – English
Russia – Russian
Sweden – Swedish
Taiwan – Traditional Chinese
Arabia – English
Argentina – Spanish
Austria – German
Chile – Spanish
Finland – Finnish
Greece – Greek
Hong Kong SAR – Traditional Chinese
Hungary – Hungarian
Indonesia – English
Ireland – English
Malaysia – English
New Zealand – English
Philippines – English
Poland – Polish
Portugal – Brazilian Portuguese
Singapore – English
South Africa – English
Switzerland – German
Switzerland – French
Turkey – Turkish
Czech Republic – Czech
Slovakia – Slovak
Slovenia – Slovenian
Latin America – Spanish

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets

China – Simplified Chinese
Netherlands – Dutch
Belgium – French
Belgium – Dutch
Brazil – Brazilian Portuguese
Denmark – Danish
India – English
Russia – Russian
Sweden – Swedish
Taiwan – Traditional Chinese
Arabia – English
Argentina – Spanish
Austria – German
Chile – Spanish
Finland – Finnish
Greece – Greek
Hong Kong SAR – Traditional Chinese
Hungary – Hungarian
Indonesia – English
Ireland – English
Malaysia – English
New Zealand – English
Philippines – English
Poland – Polish
Portugal – Brazilian Portuguese
Singapore – English
South Africa – English
Switzerland – German
Switzerland – French
Turkey – Turkish
Czech Republic – Czech
Slovakia – Slovak
Slovenia – Slovenian
Latin America – Spanish

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets

China – Simplified Chinese
Netherlands – Dutch
Belgium – French
Belgium – Dutch
Brazil – Brazilian Portuguese
Denmark – Danish
India – English
Russia – Russian
Sweden – Swedish
Taiwan – Traditional Chinese
Arabia – English
Argentina – Spanish
Austria – German
Chile – Spanish
Finland – Finnish
Greece – Greek
Hong Kong SAR – Traditional Chinese
Hungary – Hungarian
Indonesia – English
Ireland – English
Malaysia – English
New Zealand – English
Philippines – English
Poland – Polish
Portugal – Brazilian Portuguese
Singapore – English
South Africa – English
Switzerland – German
Switzerland – French
Turkey – Turkish
Czech Republic – Czech
Slovakia – Slovak
Slovenia – Slovenian
Latin America – Spanish

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds Search/Personalized Toggle & 34 New Markets

China – Simplified Chinese
Netherlands – Dutch
Belgium – French
Belgium – Dutch
Brazil – Brazilian Portuguese
Denmark – Danish
India – English
Russia – Russian
Sweden – Swedish
Taiwan – Traditional Chinese
Arabia – English
Argentina – Spanish
Austria – German
Chile – Spanish
Finland – Finnish
Greece – Greek
Hong Kong SAR – Traditional Chinese
Hungary – Hungarian
Indonesia – English
Ireland – English
Malaysia – English
New Zealand – English
Philippines – English
Poland – Polish
Portugal – Brazilian Portuguese
Singapore – English
South Africa – English
Switzerland – German
Switzerland – French
Turkey – Turkish
Czech Republic – Czech
Slovakia – Slovak
Slovenia – Slovenian
Latin America – Spanish

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:22 AM | Permalink

June 30, 2006

MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1

I reported over the Search Engine Roundtable that Yahoo's and MSN's relationship is coming to an official end this month. The official Yahoo announcement can be seen here and it states, "MSN's U.S. search distribution agreement with Yahoo! Search Marketing ends this month, and Yahoo! Sponsored Search listings will no longer appear in MSN's U.S. search results." MSN has been displaying mostly Microsoft adCenter ads on their search results pages for a couple months now. So the transition has been pretty gradual for advertisers and searchers.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:42 AM | Permalink

MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:42 AM | Permalink

MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:42 AM | Permalink

MSN Search To Officially Not Use Yahoo Search Marketing For Sponsored Search July 1

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:42 AM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

MSN Windows Live Launches News & Local Live Answers

The MSN Search blog announced that MSN Search now supports news specific and local specific "live answers." What that means is if you do a search on something news related like, george bush at live.com, you will get news related results at the top. Same deal with local specific searches such as, edison, nj dentist. Google, Yahoo and Ask.com all have this type of feature.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:25 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Launches News & Local Live Answers

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:25 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Launches News & Local Live Answers

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:25 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Launches News & Local Live Answers

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:25 AM | Permalink

May 16, 2006

MSNBC.com News Search Powered By Windows Live

The MSN Search Blog noted last night that MSNBC.com is now powered by Windows Live Search. If you perform a search at MSNBC.com, such as on pentagon you will notice that it divides the "most recent" and "full search." The MSN Search team explained that the implementation of this new search feature was "pretty simple" for them to get up and running.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:29 AM | Permalink

MSNBC.com News Search Powered By Windows Live

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:29 AM | Permalink

MSNBC.com News Search Powered By Windows Live

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:29 AM | Permalink

MSNBC.com News Search Powered By Windows Live

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:29 AM | Permalink

May 9, 2006

Windows Live Adds New Features

The Windows Live Blog announced changes they have made to Live.com. The changes include;

+ Per Page Settings (define columns, colors and themes) + "Gadgets" take up less room + Search results get displayed (rendered) first when searching from your toolbar + Gadget controls are always visible + Ability to refresh individual gadgets + Improved RSS gadget + Export to OPML format added

Hat tip to Gary Price.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds New Features

The Windows Live Blog announced changes they have made to Live.com. The changes include;

Hat tip to Gary Price.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds New Features

The Windows Live Blog announced changes they have made to Live.com. The changes include;

Hat tip to Gary Price.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Windows Live Adds New Features

The Windows Live Blog announced changes they have made to Live.com. The changes include;

Hat tip to Gary Price.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:44 PM | Permalink

May 3, 2006

Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, Merging

I was talking with Kevin Delaney of the Wall Street Journal on Monday about search things in general and mentioned the sense it makes for Microsoft and Yahoo to get together. Microsoft is behind with the core search technology. Yahoo's been struggling to upgrade its paid search service. Let's get these two kids together! And today in the Wall Street Journal, it turns out that there's apparently a faction at Microsoft that wants to do just that.

Via Paid Content, A Microsoft, Yahoo Tie-Up? from the Wall Street Journal has the details. Kevin and colleague Robert Guth write of there being two factions within Microsoft -- the "let's built it ourselves" group that has been in control so far and the "let's acquire" group apparently led by Microsoft senior vice president Hank Vigil.

Vigil is said to have led the failed negotiations to combine MSN with AOL. Frankly, a Yahoo deal makes more sense than that. AOL would have provided existing traffic but not solid search technology. Yahoo provides plenty of traffic, along with core search technology and a healthy, first-hand advertiser base.

What's not to love? Probably the high price of the acquisition, plus whether Yahoo -- especially cofounder Jerry Yang -- would go for it. But apparently it's plausible enough that both companies have talked informally over the past year.

The Wall Street Journal cites the hiring of Steve Berkowitz by Microsoft as perhaps being a tipping point. I'd certainly agree. Steve is the first serious outside person Microsoft has brought in for its battle in the search wars. Bringing him on was a big sign that what Microsoft has been trying to do internally hasn't been working -- and so something radical such as an Ask or Yahoo acquisition might be in order.

The big downside is that such an acquisition would give Microsoft yet another brand to confuse consumers with. After spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to push MSN, they've now shifted things behind making the stupid Windows Live brand their flagship. It's stupid for so many reasons. Let me bullet point two major ones:

Most people I know don't really like the Windows brand. Heck, I'm a Windows person, fairly anti-Mac, but Windows still represents crashes and glitches to me. And this is the label you want to attach to your online services?
We're moving into a world where the operating system and my web-based services aren't necessarily connected. I love Outlook. I live in Outlook. But online, I might want to sync Outlook with Yahoo or Google's calendar. Forcing me to think -- overtly or indirectly through branding -- that I have to use all your products makes me want to use none of them. Let MSN operate as if it wasn't linked to your operating system or your browser and it will be a stronger service in the long run, not weaker.

So Microsoft's already coping with the confusion of two major brands. Adding in Yahoo further confuses matters, unless they perhaps make a brave, bold move and put everything behind the brand leader in the space, Yahoo.

Meanwhile, via Valleywag, Ballmer defends Microsoft's spending increase from the Seattle Times covers a likely leaked memo from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer naming Google as one of the company's chief competitors and requiring further "heavy investments" in search. The goal, which we've heard before, is to create "the web's largest advertising network, giving us an engine that twill enable us to monetize our services and compete against Google."

Ah -- but to compete against Google, you don't need an advertising network. You first need a quality core web search engine, which your heavy investment to date has failed to create. And so back to Yahoo, which has exactly what Microsoft needs, that core technology.

Microsoft's AdCenter May Fail to Topple Google From Dominance from Bloomberg covers how advertisers are getting a more formal look at the MSN adCenter service that Microsoft has rolled out over the past few months. Unlike Microsoft's failure in web search, I'd say adCenter is a big success. The service already has plenty of advertisers using it -- and anecdotally continues to draw lots of praise for its features.

Features ultimately mean little, of course. As the story cites, it's about volume. MSN could have rolled out a terrible product that advertisers would have coped with simply because it was the only way to reach MSN's substantial traffic. But to the company's credit, they did not do that. Instead, they've continued to refine and tweak and take advertiser feedback in a way that has earned them raves I rarely hear recently about the systems at Google or Yahoo. Volume remains key, but the features and wooing still certainly help.

And that brings us back to Yahoo, which has been struggling with an antiquated paid listings toolset. The Counterattack On Google from BusinessWeek covers how Yahoo's "Panama" update to its paid listings system has been progressing over the past two years and is nearing completion. But BusinessWeek correctly summarizes, in my view, the changes are more about bringing Yahoo up to Google's level of features rather than leapfrogging past Google and into features like MSN offers.

It's another argument that makes the idea of Yahoo and Microsoft getting together not wacky at all.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo & Microsoft To Combine.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, Merging

Most people I know don't really like the Windows brand. Heck, I'm a Windows person, fairly anti-Mac, but Windows still represents crashes and glitches to me. And this is the label you want to attach to your online services?
We're moving into a world where the operating system and my web-based services aren't necessarily connected. I love Outlook. I live in Outlook. But online, I might want to sync Outlook with Yahoo or Google's calendar. Forcing me to think -- overtly or indirectly through branding -- that I have to use all your products makes me want to use none of them. Let MSN operate as if it wasn't linked to your operating system or your browser and it will be a stronger service in the long run, not weaker.

It's another argument that makes the idea of Yahoo and Microsoft getting together not wacky at all.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo & Microsoft To Combine.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, Merging

Most people I know don't really like the Windows brand. Heck, I'm a Windows person, fairly anti-Mac, but Windows still represents crashes and glitches to me. And this is the label you want to attach to your online services?
We're moving into a world where the operating system and my web-based services aren't necessarily connected. I love Outlook. I live in Outlook. But online, I might want to sync Outlook with Yahoo or Google's calendar. Forcing me to think -- overtly or indirectly through branding -- that I have to use all your products makes me want to use none of them. Let MSN operate as if it wasn't linked to your operating system or your browser and it will be a stronger service in the long run, not weaker.

It's another argument that makes the idea of Yahoo and Microsoft getting together not wacky at all.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo & Microsoft To Combine.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Yahoo & Microsoft Have Talked Partnering, Merging

Most people I know don't really like the Windows brand. Heck, I'm a Windows person, fairly anti-Mac, but Windows still represents crashes and glitches to me. And this is the label you want to attach to your online services?
We're moving into a world where the operating system and my web-based services aren't necessarily connected. I love Outlook. I live in Outlook. But online, I might want to sync Outlook with Yahoo or Google's calendar. Forcing me to think -- overtly or indirectly through branding -- that I have to use all your products makes me want to use none of them. Let MSN operate as if it wasn't linked to your operating system or your browser and it will be a stronger service in the long run, not weaker.

It's another argument that makes the idea of Yahoo and Microsoft getting together not wacky at all.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums thread, Yahoo & Microsoft To Combine.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:00 AM | Permalink

March 15, 2006

Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products

Microsoft has announced advertising will be added to a variety of their Live products, including Office Live, Windows Live Mail and most notably, MSN Spaces. Twenty beta advertisers are included in the initial advertising launch offering a variety of creatives.

The multimarket tests include advertisements from such global companies as Coca-Cola Brazil, JCPenney Co. Inc. and Monster Worldwide Inc. and mark the beginning of providing advertisers with broader access to Microsoft's valuable online audience. This effort will help generate revenue to provide consumers with a wide array of free and low-cost online services such as Web hosting, e-mail and Web services.

Adding advertising to MSN spaces is an interesting decision, especially when competitive services such as Blogger are not only ad-free, but provide tools for bloggers to earn revenue through easy implementation of Google AdSense. However, bloggers will be relieved to learn that initial advertising in MSN Spaces is limited to Australia and Italy at this time.

Posted by Jennifer Slegg at 2:21 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:21 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:21 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:21 AM | Permalink

March 8, 2006

Windows Live Search Debuts

Microsoft has seen the future, and is moving just about everything it does online into a suite of services called Windows Live. Today, Microsoft launched a beta version of Windows Live Search, a new service that's designed, at least for now, to complement MSN search. More about Microsoft's new offering in today's SearchDay article, Microsoft Launches Windows Live Search Beta.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread, Microsoft's Windows Live Search Opens; Bye-Bye MSN Search?

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Search Debuts

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread, Microsoft's Windows Live Search Opens; Bye-Bye MSN Search?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Search Debuts

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread, Microsoft's Windows Live Search Opens; Bye-Bye MSN Search?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:02 AM | Permalink

Windows Live Search Debuts

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our SEW Forums thread, Microsoft's Windows Live Search Opens; Bye-Bye MSN Search?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:02 AM | Permalink

January 26, 2006

Microsoft Announces Two New Research Labs: Live Labs and Search Labs

Just weeks after announcing the formation of the Microsoft adLab, the company is announcing two new research labs, Microsoft Live Labs (MLL) and Search Labs.

MLL will bring together researchers from MSN and Microsoft Research and will be led by Dr. Gary Flake, a technical fellow at Microsoft. Dr. Flake came to Microsoft last year. Before moving to Redmond he was the person in charge of Yahoo Research where I had the opportunity to interview him in 2004.

Microsoft Live Labs will focus on, "Internet-centric applied research programs including: rapidly prototyping and launching emerging technologies, incubating entirely new inventions, and improving and accelerating Windows Live offerings."

A list of some of the Windows Live current projects can be reviewed here. Projects include everything from the Live.com home page to Windows Live Local (directory, maps and "birds eye" magery) to the soon to launch Windows Live Expo (classified ad/social marketplace).

Ray Ozzie, Craig Mundie and David Vaskevitch, Microsoft Corp's chief technical officers, will all serve as the Live Labs Advisory Board.

From the announcement: Live Labs will investigate a broad and comprehensive set of research topics such as multimedia search, machine learning, distributed computing, data mining, as well as engage in rapid prototyping, and the incubation of disruptive technologies. Unlike basic research, which is geared toward visionary discoveries that may or may not end up in actual products, and product development, which is very feature focused and geared toward solving tactical engineering problems, Live Labs applied research will study the relationship and applicability of theories or principles to the solution of a problem, or an actual product or service.

Search Labs In addition to Microsoft Live Labs, the company is also announcing another new lab, Search Labs (SL), that will have a presence at both MS headquarters in Redmond and the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus in Mountain View, CA. SL work closely with Microsoft Live Labs.

Search Labs will be run by new MS hire, Ashok Chandra, a former VP at Verity. SL will focus on personalization and socialization and also build datamining, verticals, and parametric capabilities, "to go beyond the search bar experience."

The press release has more including info about grants, fellowships and sabbaticals for members of the academic community.

Finally, Dr. Flake has published "Live Labs - a Manifesto" that offers details on the vision, mission, philosophy, and structure of the Live Labs. In the vision section of the manifesto Flake writes: This is not Web 2.0. It's World 2.0.

Learn more from the MS Live Labs web site.

Postscript: Ina Fried has more info in this News.com story.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Announces Two New Research Labs: Live Labs and Search Labs

Just weeks after announcing the formation of the Microsoft adLab, the company is announcing two new research labs, Microsoft Live Labs (MLL) and Search Labs.

Ray Ozzie, Craig Mundie and David Vaskevitch, Microsoft Corp's chief technical officers, will all serve as the Live Labs Advisory Board.

The press release has more including info about grants, fellowships and sabbaticals for members of the academic community.