---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 2 Jul 2004 05:05:58 -0000
From: farooque
To: Mailing List Manager
Subject: Microsoft enhances MSN search engine
Microsoft Corp. today plans to roll out enhancements to MSN Search that collectively represent the most significant upgrade in the search engine's history, the company said in a statement late yesterday. The improvements include a revamped layout to give the Web site a cleaner, simpler look and to more clearly distinguish between results generated organically by the search engine and results that appear because they are paid-for ads, often called sponsored results. Moreover, the search box in the home page will feature a pull-down menu to let users choose whether they want to query MSN Search's Web index, its news sources collection, a selection of the Encarta encyclopedia contents or stock quotes, among other options. MSN Search's performance has also been improved, as has the relevance of its query results As part of the revamp, Microsoft has decided to put its paid inclusion program on hold for now. Under the program, Web site owners pay to have their sites included in the MSN Search index. Search engines have been criticized for engaging in this practice, which detractors say artificially populates an index and thus skews the relevance of query results. Popular search engine Ask Jeeves Inc. last week announced that it was canceling its remaining paid inclusion program.
Microsoft described MSN Search's upgrade as the biggest since it was launched in 1998, but added that the enhancements are "initial steps" in a massive push into the search arena. The company�s goal is to eventually deliver a search engine that provides direct answers to queries, Microsoft said. To day�s upgrade is part of a $100 million investment by Microsoft to develop its search engine technology. Along these lines, Microsoft beginning today will let users test-drive a next-generation search engine that it is developing and plans to launch within the next year. A link to the search engine, which is still in its very early stages, is located at http://sandbox.msn.com. Microsoft executives have said recently that their vision for the search segment includes the ability to search not only the Web, but also users' PCs and other sources of information. The Internet search market has become attractive in recent years thanks to search engines' practice of matching ads to individual searches, making the ads highly relevant to the information a user is searching for. For example, a vendor of sporting equipment may pay a search engine to run its ad whenever someone searches for keywords such as tennis, football or soccer. Advertising tied to keyword searching was the fastest-growing and the biggest of all U.S. Internet advertising categories in 2003, according to a report published in April by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Keyword search revenue made up 15% of online ad revenue in 2002, and jumped to 35% in 2003. The rest of the 2003 U.S. Internet advertising pie was made up of display advertising (ad banners) with 21% (down from 29% in 2002), classifieds with 17% (up from 15% in 2002) and rich media advertising with 8% (up from 5% in 2002), according to the report. Internet advertising for all of 2003 reached just under $7.3 billion, up nearly 21% from 2002. Google Inc. leads in search engine usage both in the U.S. and globally, according to recent statistics from market researcher ComScore Networks Inc. About 35% of Internet searches in the U.S. in February 2004 were done with Google. Yahoo Inc. came in second with 30%, and Microsoft's MSN was a distant third with 15.4%. Worldwide, Google accounted for 43% of all searches, followed by Yahoo with 31% and Microsoft's MSN with 14.1%, according to ComScore.
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Farooque,
IBM Global Services (India) Pvt Ltd.
First floor, GT Annexe,
Airport Road, Bangalore-17
Tel: 25094107, 25094119
email... farooque@in.ibm.com
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