with MSN search.

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Author: Gunn, Holly

The new MSN Search was introduced by Microsoft in November 2004 to challenge Google's lead in the web search world, Before 2004, MSN relied on other search engine vendors for its search database, However, in an attempt to seriously compete with Google, Microsoft developed a new web crawler, new search algorithms, and a new indexing system for its MSN Search, So, how does MSN Search stack up against its major competitor?

• A real strength of MSN Search is its ability to answer ready-reference questions, something that Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com/) does but Google cannot. Although Ask Jeeves gets its answers from the Web, MSN Search can obtain its answers from Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia as well as the Web. MSN Search provides answers for questions that are encyclopedic in nature: geographical locations, historical biographical queries, and other miscellaneous encyclopedic facts. To answer a question with Encarta using MSN Search, type the question and click on "Encarta." If it is the type of question that Encarta can answer, the answer is provided at the top of the search results.

• When you use MSN Search to ask Encarta questions, you are offered a free 2-hour passport to the premium content of Encarta Encyclopedia with your response.

• Another unique feature of MSN Search is its Search Builder, an advanced-searching option that allows searchers to construct queries with several limiters without any knowledge of search commands. Search Builder readily shows searchers the impact of adding different limiters to their search.

• MSN Search uses a large, unique search database (although not as large as Google's), thus providing serious web searchers with another database to search when they embark on exhaustive web searches. MSN Search has other strengths, but none of these set it apart from Google.

• it is capable of many power searches. It can search by file type for documents saved as .pdf, .ppt, .xls, or .doc using the command filetype:. It can perform a site search, either searching within a site or restricting a search to a specific domain, such as .edu, .org, .gov, or .ca (Canada], with the command site: and exclude sites with -site:. It can also search within the title field using the command in title:. These searches seem to be patterned off similar Google searches and use the same commands.

• Its image search provides the option for limiting results by size (large, medium, small] and color or black and white. Google does this in its Advanced Image Search.

• Like Google, MSN Search provides definitions with the command define.

• MSN Search clearly identifies its sponsored sites.

• It also provides extensive help--see http://search.msn.com/docs/help.aspx?FORM=HLDD4.

• The Search Builder, or advanced search, although innovative, has limited options. It has no provision for searching within the title field or any other part of the page, and it has no options for limiting results by file type. You can search "All of these terms," "None of these terms," "This exact phrase," or "Any of these terms." You can also include restrictions by site or domains, countries or regions, language, or rankings. But the choices stop there.

• Although MSN Search is capable of many power searches, it does not understand the allintitle: command, a useful Google power-searching command.

Although MSN's Search Builder is promising in its ability to construct searches and show the impact of the limiters on its results, its features are too limited. Search Builder cannot deliver the same refined results that you can obtain with power-search commands in the basic MSN Search interface. Unless Microsoft increases the search limiters available in Search Builder, a searcher has little reason to rely on it for advanced searching. However, you do still have a number of reasons to add MSN Search to your searching toolkit:

• It offers another unique database to search.

• It can provide answers to questions from Encarta Encyclopedia, a reliable source.

• For a limited time (at time of writing, in September 2005), you can obtain 2 free hours of Microsoft's Encarta premium content when you access Encarta through MSN Search.

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??? Microsoft. (2005). About MSN Search. Retrieved September 30, 2005, from http://search.msn.com/docs/default.aspx?FORM=HLHP2

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By Holly Gunn