14 DAY TRIAL // On September 26th, Microsoft introduced its biggest update yet to Live Search since the service went live back in 2005. Version 2.0 of the Redmond company's search engine under the Windows Live brand umbrella features not only a redesigned graphical user interface but also enhancements to the core search technology with a focus on what Microsoft referred to as vertical search areas, such as entertainment, shopping, local and health. Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft, stated following the launch that Live Search 2.0 is an equivalent to Google and Yahoo in terms of relevance, having improved its index by more than fourfold.
Nadella also underlined that while Microsoft is lagging both Google and Yahoo on the search engine market, it has placed the MSN portal as a rival to the Sunnyvale company's offerings, while Live Search is gunning after the Mountain View giant. Still, in many aspects, Live Search 2.0 is a way for Microsoft to catch up in terms of functionality, relevance, index size and features to its rivals.
"The new version of Live Search delivers improved results organized onto a single page so that customers can spend less time clicking through search results and other related Web sites and readily find what they are looking for instead. Recent significant updates include improvements to the core technology powering search, improvements in user experience and presentation of results, and deep investments in specialized content in key vertical search areas, including shopping, multimedia, health, entertainment, mapping and local search," reads a fragment of the Live Search Fact Sheet.
Google is the indisputable leader of the search engine market with a share of more than half according to the combined statistics from Nielsen//NetRatings, comScore and Hitwise. Additionally, the Mountain View company also leads in terms of the search features it offers users. On top of the now traditional web search, users can google for Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail, Blog Search, Blogger, Books, Calendar, Documents, Finance, Groups, :abs, Orkut, Patents, Photos, Products, Reader and Scholar.
Yahoo also offers web search, and on top of it supports queries for Images, Video, Local, Shopping, Answers, Audio, Directory, Jobs, News, All Search Services and Advertising Programs. Moreover Yahoo has the following services adjacent to the search engine: Answers; Autos; Finance; Games; Groups; HotJobs; Maps; Mobile Web; Movies; Music; Personals; Real Estate; Shopping; Sports; Tech; Travel; TV; Yellow Pages and Bix. This makes the Sunnyvale Internet giant the possessor of the most comprehensive set of features on top of Yahoo search, but then again we are talking about a portal.
By comparison, Microsoft's new Live Search 2.0 is delivering Images, Video, News, Maps, MSN, Academic, Books, Classifieds, feeds, Local, Health, QnA and Macros. Live Search users will be able to search and browse: online video content, local business listings, images, products, reviews, guides, prices, health and medical information, entertainment news, maps, academic information and journals, etc. But of course, it still remains to be seen whether Live Search will rise up to the level of Yahoo with over 20% of the market, from its current approximately 10%.