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The
MSN Search Engine Microsoft's "Live" Search Engine |
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Live Search By MSN
Introducing the Microsoft Prototype Crawler - 131.107.163.? ( Archive )
Does the above sound like an echo of Google's mantra? It's no mistake, as Microsoft has recently made a significant investment in the search engine business by hiring a large staff of search engine engineers. Microsoft has also recently admitted to entering in competition with Google.com, and there is every indication that they are gearing up for a large battle on the search engine front. During the second half of the month of April, the Microsoft Prototype Crawler ( MicrosoftPrototypeCrawler (How's my crawling? mailto:newbiecrawler@hotmail.com)), coming off of Microsoft's own servers ( 131.107.163 ), began to make its first marks in the log files of numerous websites. In many cases, the search engine spider simply "stopped by" for a short visit, fetching only one or two files from many websites. In June of 2003, Microsoft officially announced the presence of the MSNBOT ( email: msnbot@microsoft.com ). While obviously nowhere near the implementation stage, it has become quite obvious that Microsoft intends to develop a search system to rival google.com. MSN Search Engine by Microsoft ( Archive )The MSN Search Engine derives its primary database from Inktomi. The MSN directory of websites is built from the Looksmart directory. It displays sponsored ads from Overture and other MSN advertising partners. The usefulness of Microsoft's search engine is greatly reduced due to the way sponsored websites are listed. Featured sites and sponsored listings in many cases outweigh authentic "matched results", and these results are placed above normal search results. Microsoft, while it does utilize its own ranking algorithm, does not keep an archived copy of any web pages for calculations. This significantly reduces its ability to determine relevancy and thus provide quality results. It relies heavily on the title, descriptions, meta tags, and link popularity as determined by its search partners. Furthermore, MSN does not utilize its own web crawler, choosing instead to rely on Inktomi, paid inclusion partners ( including advertising ), and the Looksmart directory to populate its index. This reduces the ability of MSN to deliver quality content. At this time, the success of the MSN search system is completely dependent on Microsoft's market penetration with its family of products, including the MSN network of websites, its operating systems, and strong partnerships ( such as with NBC Network News ). Users utilize the MSN search engine as either a matter of convenience or ignorance, not because of the quality search results it delivers. Back to: Search Engine Optimization
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