14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is currently rolling out worldwide its next generation of the search engines under the Windows Live brand umbrella. The fall release of Live Search introduces version 2.0, which Satya Nadella, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Search & Advertising Platform Group claims that is equal to what direct rivals Google and Yahoo have to offer in terms of relevance. The Redmond company is currently struggling in the third position on the search engine market, with the combined results of MSN and Live Search, lagging at a distance behind Google and close, but not close enough, to Yahoo. Microsoft revealed that the evolution from Live Search to Live Search 2.0 is focused essentially on enhancements introduced to its core search technology. Additionally, improvements were also delivered to the entertainment, shopping, local and health components, as Microsoft regards these vertical search areas as pillars of its search engine.
"With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers," said Nadella. "We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time."
The Redmond company boasted first of all the fact that it has managed to increase the index size over fourfold. Microsoft has failed to confirm the exact size of the Live Search 2.0 index, but speculations point to a figure as high as 20 or even 30 billion indexed items. "The new Live Search has exceeded the goal of quadrupling its range of coverage, setting a foundation that will enable it continue to keep pace with the growth of the Web," Microsoft explained.
The new generation of the Redmond company's Windows Live search engine has been trained to better read, understand and predict query intent, overcoming issues such as spelling errors, stop words, punctuation and synonyms. Microsoft also focused on the refinement of queries, delivering improved suggestions and superior results, as well as on enhancing the core algorithms of Live Search. Version 2.0 comes to the table complete with additional click-stream data designed to impact factors such as ranking and relevancy.
"New Web data extraction model - core search innovation enables Microsoft to build rich vertical experiences that update on the fly. Expansion of Rich Answers - based on user feedback that sometimes people are just looking for a specific fact or answer, Live Search's improved Answers platform provides specialized responses to queries about specific areas such as weather, images, celebrities and entertainment, sports, stocks, Yellow Pages, maps or quick facts from Encarta.", Microsoft added.