MSN Search Prepares to Battle Google.

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Author: Rubenking, Neil J.

Microsoft revitalized the appearance of MSN Search with a new look in July 2004, but the search results still came from Inktomi. The latest MSN Search, available now in public beta at http://beta.search.msn.com, relies on Microsoft's own Web crawlers and search algorithms. It indexes over 5 billion pages â€" about five times as many as it did before (though still shy of Google's 8 billion). And it has a slew of new features aimed at supplying actual answers rather than mere results.

For starters, MSN has rolled its online Encarta into the mix. When appropriate, a brief answer from Encarta will appear above Web-based results, with a link to the full article. (You still need a subscription to see articles drawn from the Premium side of the Encarta database.) A plain-language query such as "what is Tuvalu?" or "define syzygy" will return a definition (if available) before Web-based results.

The process of indexing Encarta is ongoing (and as of this writing, incomplete). For example, you'll get an Encarta answer to "vice president of Ulysses Grant" (Schuyler Colfax) but not for some other queries. Also, you may need to tweak your phrasing a bit: "Ulysses Grant's vice president" doesn't trigger the Encarta connection. Microsoft plans to collaborate with other database providers to index additional information that's not accessible to an ordinary Web search.

Of course, special features are worthless unless the engine successfully handles basic queries â€" which MSN Search certainly does. It ranks search results on over 100 criteria, among them the number of inbound links and the page quality (as determined by the company's algorithms). The new MSN Search includes many features requested by users, among them links to cached pages, consolidation of results from the same domain, a Google-like Settings page, and automatic suggestion of alternate search terms or spellings. Interestingly, MSN's indexing algorithms "geotag" each found domain by searching for addresses in that domain's pages. Clicking on the "Near Me" button ranks the search results by their distance from the location you specified on the Settings page.

We were most impressed by the handy Search Builder, which allows refining a search without having to memorize special prefixes. To limit the search to a particular domain, for example, you simply click on the "Site/Domain" button, enter the domain, and click on the "Add to search" button. The appropriate syntax gets added to the contents of the search box. You can also seek pages from a particular country, in a particular language, or containing links to a specific site.

The Search Builder also lets you control the importance of specific criteria in ranking found sites. Sliders let you choose between old, static pages and those recently refreshed, between more and less popular pages, and between pages matching your terms precisely or approximately. Power users can insert these choices directly in the search string â€" for example, "{frsh=100} {pop1=100} {mtch=0}" would focus on results that are very fresh, very popular, and an exact match.

MSN Search also tries to answer a wide variety of questions related to mathematics and unit conversion. A math equation expressed in numbers or words will be evaluated, as will named constants like e and pi, and scientific values like "the speed of light." This feature is still limited compared with the powerful Google Calculator, however.

Like Google, MSN Search can perform many common unit conversions, answering questions like "how many teaspoons in a cup" or "one parsec in miles." Unlike Google, it won't use units in calculations â€" you can't ask it to calculate "3 gallons plus 1 quart in pints," for example. On the other hand, MSN Search has the impressive ability to solve simple equations â€" something Google won't do. Enter "solve x^2 + 3x â€" 28 = 0" and you'll get "x = -7", one of the two possible answers.

For a news-related search like "Dick Cheney" or "John Edwards," MSN Search will offer recent news articles above the general search results along with a link to its news-specific search. Searching the News page with a blank query gets no results (at least not yet), whereas Google serves up a list of top stories. There's also no equivalent to the topic list at the left of Google's News page.

MSN also offers an Image search that lets you filter results by Large, Medium, or Small images or by black-and-white or color. Clicking on the image gets an easy-to-read page with information and a full-size view. Here again, the current MSN collection is smaller than Google's: An image search on "Emperor Norton" yielded about 50 images, while Google returned over 900. A search on a popular artist, album, or song (for example, "Beastie Boys") will return specialized results from MSN Music, including links to top downloadable songs.

Clearly Microsoft intends the new MSN Search to be a significant challenger to Google, modifying it based on user requests and enhancing the search experience with elements that only Microsoft can supply, like Encarta answers and MSN Music "hits." There's room for improvement: This is a beta release, after all. But it's worth a look, if only to get a preview of the dogfight that looms in 2005 between these titans.

Free. Microsoft Corp., http//beta.search.msn.com.###@$

MSN SEARCH'S handy link to the Encarta online encyclopedia returns answers to plain-language questions, not just a list of Web sites where you might find an answer.

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By Neil J. Rubenking