Microsoft Works on Search Capabilities 480
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."
Image search bots? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmm. Interesting. I have seen a number of new MS bots trolling all over our lab site for the past two months grabbing every image they can.
Why OS share really won't help MS beat Google (Score:2, Interesting)
We've already seen a number of big fluctuations in search engine popularity in the short history of the internet. It's not a matter of what MS does as much as it is a matter of what Google does. If Google keeps their search reliability high, and keeps users happy, few won't feel any need to switch from something they're already comfortable with.
For image searching GNU has The GIFT (Score:5, Interesting)
It works much better than I expected.
I wish I was skilled enough to help out with the project because I think it will become important in the future and now that MS is after the same sort of application you can image what will happen.
The GIFT (the GNU Image-Finding Tool) [gnu.org]
MS search won't work (Score:4, Interesting)
You will note the fall of yahoo as an material example.
Want an example? Go type "linux" into the msn search engine. I'll wait. Now, compare those results with those garnered from google.
Don't want to switch but... (Score:3, Interesting)
As much as I hate Microsoft, if they made a good proximity search engine, I would use it all the time. It's one feature I wish google had.
Simple strategy... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can just see it, too... IE will "accidentally" resolve www.google.com to search.msn.com. And while the lawsuits are going, M$ will claim (as in, for marketing purposes) marketshare as proof that their search is better.
And when it does come out in the courts some ump-teen years later with Microsoft guilty of uncompetitve practices, Bill will cough up the $300M to google and "fix" the "bug."
I've seen this history before... I don't expect them to change a winning formula. 8P
Re:Search on msdn.microsoft.com (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly I need to get work done and I'm not interested in helping beta testing a microsoft search engine when google already works great.
image analysis (Score:3, Interesting)
Meeeeellions of dollars! (Score:4, Interesting)
To us mere mortals, that's like betting a $1.00.
Difference between google and msn-search (Score:3, Interesting)
Tools on the google labs page [google.com]are labeled beta or whatever but they are still much more feature-filled and stable than the competitors' products I am aware of.
In this case, msn makes this mistake again when they are publishing some features which "will be" doing foo or bar some day.
Of course, an advanced picture search is nice and it might lead into more results than images.google.com but the main difference is that images.google.com is real.
The topic was "Microsoft Works on Search Capabilities" which is a correct headline. The rest was redundant.
(did anyone make an obligaroty "Microsoft Works"-joke regarding to the topic yet?")
The only thing I can see from Microsoft when it comes to search engines are logfile entries like:orand this (several hundred times):and finally
Re:Search on msdn.microsoft.com (Score:3, Interesting)
What's done in the lab and what can actually be sold are very different things. The senior information retrieval researchers at MSR are *smart* people.
I had the opportunity to hear Susan Dumais' talk on "Stuff I've Seen" at SIGIR this year. SIS is a really interesting piece of software, a personal search engine. Every e-mail you send or receive, every file you create is fed into a search engine residing on your PC. You can then search for things by date, keyword, etc. and easily locate exactly what you're looking for.
Yeah, great search interface! Really inspires my confidence!
If anyone can topple Google, they can.
Re:Whoa! (Score:2, Interesting)
What I always wanted... (Score:2, Interesting)
--krahd
mod me up, scottie!
Re:I doubt this happens (Score:5, Interesting)
Fine.
To be more "SPACIFIC" (sic), my search results from MSN tend to include dozens (if not more) of "search" sites - pages set up with hundreds of keywords or squatted domain names designed to get hits and redirect you to some type of SPAM site. Yahoo! is starting to get this way as well, although the problem is not as prevalent as it is with MSN.com. I rarely see this happen in a Google-found site.
There ya go. Facts.
It's easy to just rattle off the standard anti-M$ line (and get "insightful")...
Just for good measure, my comments were about the MSN portal; I have no problem using other Microsoft products.
And to everyone who was more congenial about my "sputtering," my sincere apologies.
William
Re:MS search won't work (Score:5, Interesting)
Now take it a step further and search on "black people ebay". Google [google.com] results start off by providing links to items offered by black people and about racism. MSN [msn.com] results start off by advertising that it will sell you black people on E-bay (as well as their related items).
I wonder how long before they fix that little problem!
Nutch? (Score:3, Interesting)
Take a look here: here [nutch.org]
Re:uh right... (Score:3, Interesting)
My favorite browser is Opera...mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, threading, well done popup blocking, and did I mention mouse gestures?. Not that it's the only browser with some of those, but it is very fast and low on bloat. And I think it's the only one with the gestures. Not to mention the M2 mail client is really nice (once you sit down and get used to it). You just gotta know beforehand that not all pages load well. But in my browsing experience, 90% of the pages I visit have no difficulty. Most of the 10% have only minor formatting problems.
Re:Search on msdn.microsoft.com (Score:1, Interesting)
At least until a month ago, # was not indexed.
Re:uh right... (Score:3, Interesting)
Uhmm...Yeah, that's why IE's java and ActiveX support permanently and completely broke for no reason on my machine. Not even a total reinstall of Windows, Java and IE fixed it. I can't even use Windows Update with it, to say nothing of other sites using Java and such.
Sure is an awesome interface, when the majority of the sites I visit won't even display properly (if at all). There's no error dialog, no half-loaded script, nothing at all to help me figure out what's wrong- most of the UI seems to be built around glossing over errors as much as possible.
On top of that, there's no built-in support for pop-up blocking, there's at least a security hole or two almost every week, and just generally feels old and busted.
I've been using Firebird for the better part of a year now, and I couldn't be happier. It may not be perfect, but at least everything works, it feels fast and slick, and keeps junk out of my way while i'm surfing.
IE hasn't won anything...Most people just don't know there's any alternatives out there.
No. (Score:5, Interesting)
That and the fact that a big part of Google's draw is its simplicity, in that you don't get 120K of "how would you like to buy some crap?" banners before you get to your search results. Microsoft doesn't have the restraint or the finesse to pull that off, either. They could -- but they won't. Not when the almighty dollar is at stake, which is all MS cares about.
So they might be able to sell it to the mom and pop users who have no clue, but replace Google? No. Anyone who knows anything about MS or Google won't go for it.
Re:Image search bots? (Score:2, Interesting)
Try looking for car part vendors online, for instance. Or just about anything. The search engine spammers have won.
Re:Sample of their wonderful search (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, all but the Mozilla users of course... [msn.com]
Re:Search on msdn.microsoft.com (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Search on msdn.microsoft.com (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Image search bots? (Score:2, Interesting)
MSN's Nasty Tactics (Score:2, Interesting)
About 2 months ago, Microsoft decided that the MSN search box would steal focus from anything in the browser. Want to type in a URL in the address bar while the page is loading? Helfway through it steals focus and the URL is jacked up.
I use the Google toolbar, and even when I'm typing a search term in there, MSN steals focus and redirects my keystrokes to their search box.
I found this new "feature" to be som completely intrusive that I left MSN as a home page. And I'm not going back.
The sad part is that this has been happening for 2 months, and I've never heard anyone else complain.
MSN Search won't fly (Score:3, Interesting)
MSN Search won't replace Google for one reason: MS is constitutionally incapable of leaving their own interests, financial and otherwise, out of the results. People prefer one search engine over another mainly based on whether it returns accurate, unbiased, relevant results, and keeps the paid-for stuff out of the way of the actual results. MS won't be able to resist trying to "improve" things by putting the paid-for listings in with the results (where they're more likely to be clicked on, and therefore more valuable to Microsoft because they can be sold for a higher price), biasing the results in favor of their own sites (which would result in increased value for Microsoft for those sites) and so on. Given alternatives, people will tend to migrate towards the one that gives priority to their interests and away from the one that considers their interests secondary.