Microsoft Works on Search Capabilities

bl8n8r writes "Microsoft is betting millions that someday it will be as well known for search as Google is. Some of its efforts to simplify search on the Internet will soon be in place. The new version of Microsoft's MSN Internet service, available this winter, will include a tool for retrieving digital photos based on images in the pictures. For example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all pictures that include a specific person's face or background."

Pics

[Nerdimus_Maximus]

Give me all pics of CowboyNeal in a van down by the river.

"Developing technologies"

[r_glen]

It is developing search-related technologies to do everything from sorting through digital photos to combing through items scattered on your desktop computers.

In other words, the Windows 'search' feature?

are we supposed to take this seriously?

[wawannem]

I mean really, it seems like everytime M$ comes out with something new, they tell us it will be the second coming of Christ. C#, .NET, etc. I mean, when are we gonna learn that M$ touting a new technology as the best thing ever isn't newsworthy.

Lovely.

[Anonymous Coward]

user: Okay.. search for that Kubrick movie 'Lolita'..

WebClippy: It appears you are searching for kiddie pr0n.
Here are some suggestions:

[ ] Send an automated confession to the FBI

[ ] Format your hard drive

[ ] All of the above

Re:uh right...

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be cool though. I've often found a cute girl in porn and it would be nice to search the web for all other free pictures of her.

Sample of their wonderful search

[Enrique G]

Yes, Microsoft will compete with Google someday. This shows their on the right track: We Can't find orselves! [msn.com]

MSN vs Google

[Anonymous Coward]

as well known for search as Google is

It already is, though the quality of its reputation is far behind.

"Do you know Google?"
"Yeah, it's great."

"Do you know MSN?"
"Yeah, that piece of crap?"

A giant leap forward for porn!

[McVeigh]

For example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all pictures that include a specific person's face or background.

think of time saved in searching for porn!!

Re:Image search bots?

[Rojo^]

Sorry about that. Someone told me your site had some good porn.

-- B. Gates

Bull...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Here are your results buried within 100.000 ads"

Re:Sample of their wonderful search

[julesh]

Good link. But I think this one's better:

Something else MSN can't find... [msn.com]

Re:I doubt this happens

[TerryAtWork]

yes but always remember MS *ALWAYS* starts out sucky and then gets less sucky forever.

Re:I doubt this happens

[julesh]

(2) The "news" story titles are misleading and the stories are frequently repeated over the course of a week;

Now where have I seen this before? Hmmm...

Fun with search.msn.com errors

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't find anything! [msn.com]

Re:Sample of their wonderful search

[Lecutis]

You know, ever since the Big Guy [msn.com] left, they haven't been doing so well...

My karma sucks so bad if you are seeing this then the rest of us were pulled up in the rapture.

Hangtime to first porn reference.....4 minutes

[StressGuy]

...you guys are slowing down a little....

No good for slashdotters

[Stonent1]

For example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all pictures that include a specific person's face or background."

What if I'm searching for an alternate link for the Goatse man for posting on /.? There's no face!

Re:Sample of their wonderful search

[UnixRawks]

Our marketing department [msn.com] is right on top of this!

what about my parents?

[Traa]

Well, my father was recently telling me that he was considering repainting the garage with some kind of latex paint but was concerned about wether it would bond appropriatly to the wall. He wanted to see results of how that would work out...

I can allready see him going to MSN image search and searching for "Latex Bondage"

yeah, this was taken from some silly flash clip about parents and the internet...

Re:MS search won't work

[oscarcar]

Type this search into MSN and what do you get?

search: why msn search sucks
result: CNN WebSearch: Search Results for 'google sucks'

WTF!?

Some example searches

[Atario]

Search: "boobies"
Results: First 100 of approximately 475,547,574 results displayed.

Search: "linux"
Results: Did you mean windows?

Search: "ashcroft current location"
Results: You are under arrest.

Re:Monkeyboy

[gregarican]

Just like when you could type certain phrases in Word and the thesaurus would translate them into something even funnier. I can't recall which older version, but if you typed in something like, "Bill Gates died." then the thesauraus would return "Hallelujah". All I know is that Bill Gates is a separated twin with the bassist for REM.

I have an idea

[dema]

My first MSN image search will of course be: Bill Gates +pie

Re:Our new products will kinda of good, I guess.

[El]

I don't know... how well did the advertising slogan "Nothing sucks like a Vax!" work?

Re:Rich Uncle Pennybags

[RumpRoast]

Right, right.. I can see the windows update entry now-

This update corrects an issue where the end user has specified some search engine other than the default msn one and will also correct browsers whose home page has been mistakenly set to something other than "www.msn.com". -- 2.8M

I wonder

[Molina the Bofh]

users can ask their computers to retrieve all pictures that include a specific person's face

I wonder if they'll link to any of this pictures, when searching for this specific person's face:

http://www.areyadone.com/images/hated/bill-gates.j pg [areyadone.com]
http://users.cybercity.dk/~cfs4636/PIC/Bill%20Gate s%20-%20007.jpg [cybercity.dk]
http://www.holub.com/goodies/images/Billborg.jpg [holub.com]
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/catcam/bill-gates-borg .gif [rr.com]
http://www.kewlcard.de/bilder/postcard/5/bill%20ga tes.jpg [kewlcard.de]
http://www.rockhardplace.com/horror/images/ironmai den/eddie-bill%20gates.jpg [rockhardplace.com]
http://superwebon.iespana.es/superwebon/Archivos/B romas/Fotos/Humor%202/Bill%20Gates%20Feto.jpg [iespana.es]
http://www.paulsjusticepage.com/images/cyborg.jpg [paulsjusticepage.com]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/graphics/2002/09/ 24/cnforb24.jpg [telegraph.co.uk]
http://ta.twi.tudelft.nl/DV/Staff/Lemmens/gates.jp g [tudelft.nl]
http://images.ecampus.com/images/d/258/0312192258. gif [ecampus.com]

Re:I doubt this happens

[void warranty()]

Top Google result for "tits": super-tits.com
MSN result for "tits": "You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content."

'Nuf said.

Re:Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

He said it was lesbian pr0n. This is good.

boob recognition technology!

[IthnkImParanoid]

You know, if this new technology allows me to search for boobs belonging to particular individuals, it may be the best thing to come out of Microsoft's R&D, since ....err.... ever!

Microsoft keep out meta tag

[frovingslosh]

This got me thinking. It would be nice if there were some meta tag like the

meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"

tag to keep just Microsoft from indexing your site, maybe like

meta name="borg" content="noindex,nofollow".

Then I realized there already is one. To keep Microsoft from indexing your website but still let Google and other search engines index the site, use this meta tag:

meta name="Keywords" content="Linux"

Even better

[pclminion]

Try searching for "World's Best Operating System." in MSN.

Are you feeling the irony, baby?

Here's Clippy!

[NickFitz]

"It looks like you're browsing porn. Can I give you a hand with that?"

Re:MS search won't work

[Jmstuckman]

Google had something like this last month. You would search for "severed head" and you would get an ad along the right side for "severed head on Ebay".

Re:Image search bots?

[IBitOBear]

Since they cannot get face recognition software to work, how is the image going to be claissified?

Microsoft is going to hire half of Guatamala to sit at low-grade terminals 140 hours a week, looking at grany internet porn and going "that's Brad Pitt!" (click).