New MSN Search Service Helps Consumers Find and Act on
Information More Quickly
Online Stock Market Trading REDMOND, Wash. -- Nov. 11, 2004 -- MSN today debuted a beta
version of its new MSN Search service, providing consumers with
more useful answers to their questions and more control over their
search experience, which results in faster access to the
information they are seeking online. The new MSN Search is designed
to reduce the time and effort required by consumers to find
information online by offering one of the largest, most up-to-date
selections of information and a new class of powerful, customizable
search tools.
The global beta version of MSN Search is available today for
public use in the United States at http://beta.search.msn.com, and
worldwide in 26 markets and 11 languages from local MSN Web sites.*
The new MSN Search allows consumers to quickly receive relevant
answers from a universe of more than 5 billion Web documents.
MSN Spaces allows consumers to create personal Internet sites where they can express themselves in a variety of ways and interact with the important people in their life. The service provides people with a place to create and update a Web log, or blog, as well as share photos, music playlists and more. For example, more than 6 million photos are uploaded to the service each day, with more than 2.5 billion photos uploaded since MSN Spaces launched as a beta service in December 2004.
Stock Investing Course New and innovative features in MSN Search provide an enhanced
search experience by providing relevant answers to direct questions
-- such as "What is the second-longest coastline in the world?" --
within the search results. In addition, the Search Near Me feature
automatically provides information and resources that are close to
home, dramatically reducing the time needed to find geographically
relevant information and eliminating the need to sift through
thousands of links. Finally, searching for news, images or
music is fully integrated into the
new, streamlined search experience.
Thankfully, Yahoo! isn't the only search engine breaking into this "provide search results from your web site" service. MSN Search ( //search.msn.com) provides a similar service, except it enables the web developer to control the look, feel, and implementation. This ability comes from MSN Search providing RSS versions of its search results, making it possible to subscribe to a particular search or add the results to your page using Ajax methods. Google has yet to throw its hat into this new spin on "search from your site" technique, although, at the time of this writing, Google released Google BlogSearch Beta ( //blogsearch.google.com), which provides results returned in either RSS or Atom formats.
Stock Market Game "The release of our beta is a huge step toward delivering the
information consumers are looking for online, faster than previous
versions of MSN Search," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president
for the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division
at Microsoft Corp. "With better results and more powerful search
tools, MSN Search is creating a new, higher standard for online
search -- one that helps consumers find the information they need,
when they need it."
Earlier this month, Microsoft began testing display ads using different ad formats on Microsoft Office Live, Windows Live Mail, and MSN Spaces. Once out of the beta stage, the plan is to offer advertising along with subscriptions to support these services. The target audience is small businesses and consumers, and the services are expected to be available in late 2006.
Stock Investing Game New Search Engine Revs Up Relevance and Presentation of Online
Answers
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Journal Prime Rate Street Wall At the heart of the new MSN Search is an advanced search engine,
built over the past two years on Microsoft technology, that
dramatically improves search results by offering consumers the
following features and benefits:
"Today we're closing one chapter and opening a new one in our relationship with Microsoft, " said Rob Glaser, Founder and CEO of RealNetworks. "The legal chapter is being closed with an appropriate and fair outcome that sets the stage for a very productive and collaborative relationship between our companies. By integrating Real's premier music and games services into Microsoft's very popular MSN service, we will reach more consumers today and deliver even better products and services tomorrow."
Stock Market News * Vast index of information. The MSN Search index of more than 5
billion Web documents is one of the largest indexes offered today.
With more items being added continually, the new search engine
increases consumers' chances of finding the information they
want.
* The most up-to-date information. The index, much of which is
updated weekly or even daily, provides the most relevant, timely
and accurate data as quickly as possible, while minimizing
frustrating dead links.
* Direct answers. Users can ask the search engine a question --
such as "What is the capital of Turkey?" -- and receive the answer
-- "Ankara" -- from Microsoft Encarta, the No. 1 best-selling
encyclopedia brand.** Authoritative, direct answers are provided in
a number of categories, including definitions, facts, calculations,
conversions and
solutions to equations.
* Direct actions. When consumers type the name of an artist, song
or album, they get linked directly to top
music and other content provided by
MSN Music. One click allows MSN Search
users to sample music, and a second click lets them
purchase and download it.
* Content-specific searching. To help consumers quickly get to the
information they are looking for, MSN Search enables them to search
for specific information using search tabs such as Web, news and
images.
Stock Investing Basics New Search Tools Offer Consumers More
Control
Stock Investing Software Microsoft designed MSN Search to overcome the one-size-fits-all
approach offered by other search engines. Pull-down menus and other
customization tools built into MSN Search allow consumers to
control and refine their searches in the following ways:
Stock Market Trading * Search Near Me. Consumers can receive search results tailored
to a geographic location. A consumer in Portland, Maine, who needs
to know the location of the nearest local fire station no longer
needs to sift through online listings for Portland, Ore. This is
accomplished by assigning geographical information to Web pages as
they are indexed by the service.
* Search Builder. MSN Search users can customize search results by
emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain search criteria, such as
specific sites or domains, countries, regions, or languages.
Consumers who want to apply specific criteria to their searches can
visit a menu of adjustable on-screen dials for each criterion. The
dials can be reset when consumers' criteria change. A consumer who
needs current facts and figures can adjust the dial to emphasize
the most updated results, and someone looking for the official Web
site of a favorite television show can adjust the dial to emphasize
the most popular results.
Stock Investing For Dummy Through the efforts of many of its top developers and employees
around the world, Microsoft is dedicating thousands of hours to
build the new search service, a complete version of which is slated
to launch early next year. The new MSN Search is another example of
the MSN vision to empower people globally through information,
software and services that help them find, discover and experience
what they want to online.
Stock Market Crash About MSN
Stock Investing Tip MSN attracts more than 360 million unique users worldwide per
month. With localized versions available globally in 40 markets and
20 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering
Web
services to consumers and online
advertising opportunities to
businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service
today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to
make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at
http://www.msn.com . MSN worldwide sites are located at
http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx
Stock Market Chart About Microsoft
Online Stock Investing Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software, services and solutions that help people and
businesses realize their full potential.
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