The fact that it is but the constant bronze winner in a three-horse race against Google and Yahoo, on the search engine market, does nothing to stop Microsoft from experimenting with its search engine. Back in 2006, the Redmond company introduced Ms. Dewey. An innovative approach at a search engine, Ms. Dewey, powered by Live Search, featured actress Janina Gavankar who had a role in a soft-porn flick called 'Cup of My Blood'. After pictures of a scantly clad and topless Gavankar/Ms. Dewey surfaced, the Live Search-powered Ms. Dewey initiative got a boost in play, but for all the wrong reasons.

Well, it appears that Microsoft is loyal to the saying that if at first you don't succeed, go with the same viral marketing campaign one more time, but just shift the concept around. But this time around, aimed to benefit from the buzz around the upcoming U.S. elections, Microsoft is going with Left vs. Right. But this time around with Patrick and Britt, who, just as Ms. Dewey, are animated, react to user interaction, and perform a variety of repetitive sketches for your amusement.

"Welcome, fellow American to Left vs. Right, the political search engine designed by and for political junkies like you. Looking for more than just web results? Left vs. Right lets you filter your content by Web, News, Image, Video or RSS feed. You can also choose to filter your results through a blue or red filter. Once a color filter is activated, your query results will be drawn exclusivelly from a list of blogs and news sources with that color's political ideology," reads an excerpt of the Left vs. Right political search engine.

Microsoft has partnered with Reuters and Fox for the initiative. However, the underlying infrastructure is based on Live Search. All searches also provide the user with news results highlighted at the bottom of the screen, as well as an Internet cloud on adjacent topics.

"Remember, Left vs. Right is a political search engine, and works best when you confine your searches to queries that are political in nature. To help you stay on track, we have provided an Interest Cloud of top searches of the day on the news desktop. Clicking on any of those terms will automatically fill in the search bar on the Left vs. Right desk," Microsoft added.