LIVE SEARCH

'Live Search' (formerly ''Windows Live Search'') is the name of Microsoft's web search engine, successor to MSN Search, designed to compete with the industry leaders Google and Yahoo!. Live Search is accessible through Microsoft's Live.com and MSN web portal.
The new search engine offers some innovative features, such as the ability to view additional search results on the same web page (instead of needing to click through to subsequent search result pages) and the ability to dynamically adjust the amount of information displayed for each search-result (i.e. just the title, a short summary, or a longer summary). It also allows the user to save searches and see them updated automatically on Live.com.

Contents

History

Search products

Other Search Services

Sidebar gadgets

Tie-ins and Promotions

Criticisms

References

See also

External links

History

The first public beta of Live Search was unveiled on March 8 2006, with the final release on September 11 2006 replacing MSN Search.
On March 21 2007, it was announced that Microsoft would separate its Live Search developments from the Windows Live services family. Live Search was integrated into the 'Live Search and Ad Platform' headed by Satya Nadella, part of Microsoft's ''Platform and Systems division''. As part of this change, Live Search was consolidated with Microsoft adCenter.^[1]
In the roll-over from MSN Search to Live Search, Microsoft stopped using Picsearch as their image search provider and started performing their own image search, fueled by their own internal image search algorithms.^[2]

Search products

In addition to its tool for searching webpages, Live Search also provides services for searching:

Service	Website	Description
'Academic'	http://academic.live.com	''Live Search Academic'' searches for academic journals and published papers.
'Books'	http://books.live.com	''Live Search Books'' searches for written content that has been made available on the Internet.
'Classifieds'	http://expo.live.com	''Windows Live Expo'' lets users to search for classifieds from an online social marketplace featuring user-created adverts.
'Feeds'	http://search.live.com/feeds	''Live Search Feeds'' searches for RSS feeds based on the user's search query.
'Images'	http://images.live.com	''Live Search Images'' offers an intuitive user interface where users can adjust the size images found in a results page and create their own "scratchpad" to collect images for later reference. Users can also continue scrolling for images without having to switch between multiple pages of results and can continue to search after they have selected an image.
'Local'	http://localsearch.live.com/localsearch http://intl.local.live.com
'Macros'	http://search.live.com/macros
'Maps'	http://maps.live.com http://local.live.com	''Live Search Maps'' enables the user to search for businesses, addresses, landmarks and street names worldwide, and can select from a road-map style view, a satellite view or a hybrid of the two. Also available are "bird's-eye" images for many cities worldwide, and 3D Maps which include virtual 3D navigation and to-scale terrain and 3D buildings.
'News'	http://news.live.com	''Live Search News'' provides news results relevant to the search query from a wide range of online news and information services.
'Products'	http://products.live.com	''Live Product Search'' lets users search from a wide range of online suppliers and marketer's merchandise for all types of products and goods.
'QnA'	http://qna.live.com	''Live QnA'' lets users to search from a database of questions and answers, and at the same time allow users to post their questions online on to the site where the public can answer them.
'Video'	http://video.live.com	''Live Search Video'' allows the user to search for video content from many different sources on the Internet. ''See also Soapbox on MSN Video''

Other Search Services

Live Search Mobile allow search results to be displayed onto a mobile device. Live Product Upload and Live Search Books Publisher Program allow users to upload and publish their own contents to the search index and allow merchants and book publishers to search for them via Live Product Search and Live Search Books respectively.
Microsoft also develops and operates other search tools and services including Windows Desktop Search.
There are also many Windows Live services available that are not directly search-related. Windows Live Hotmail, for example, is a webmail application, but still include search features.

Sidebar gadgets

'Live Search Gadget' is for Windows Vista's Sidebar that uses Live Search to fetch the user's search results and render them directly in the gadget. The gadget allow users to configure up to two additional custom searches. Users can also search using Live Search Macros from this gadget by creating their own macros or find one in Windows Live Gallery.
'Live Search Traffic Gadget' displays real-time traffic conditions using Live Search Maps. The gadget provides shortcuts to driving directions, local search and full-screen traffic view. Currently only traffic data from 23 selected US cities are supported, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington DC.

Tie-ins and Promotions

Since May 1 2006, Live Search has been providing the search results for Amazon's A9 search service and the experimental Ms. Dewey interactive search site.
On January 17 2007, Microsoft announced that all searches done from a special portal site would lead to a donation to the UNHCR's organization for refugee children, ninemillion.org. The amount to be donated is not readily available on Microsoft's sites, but Reuters AlertNet reports that the amount to be donated is $0.01 per search, with a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of $250,000 (equivalent to 250 million searches).^[3]
In April 2007, Microsoft launched Live Search Club, where users can win prizes by playing word games that generate Live Search queries.

Criticisms

Live Search has received much criticism from reviewers and other competing search providers, such as Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com and AOL. Live Search and its predecessor MSN Search have been generally losing market share since 2006, mainly due to their lack of marketing and frequent changes. Many reviewers have criticized the lack of definition for Microsoft's range of Windows Live services, and many users don't know the existence of Live Search other than discovering it from Internet Explorer's search box. Live Search is also criticized for its frequent change and redesigns, creating unfamiliarity for its users. ^[4]

References

1. Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft severs Live Search from the rest of the Windows Live family
2. Chris Sherman, September 12, 2006, Microsoft Upgrades Live Search Offerings
3. Microsoft Donates to Ninemillion.org - Reuters AlertNet
4. "Microsoft Search Losing Market Share" InsideMicrosoft part of the Blog News Channel, Nathan Weinberg, 2006-11-27


★ Microsoft Unveils Live Search - Softpedia

See also

★ Windows Live

★ Ms. Dewey

External links

★ Live Search

★ Official Live Search team blog