Bing

MSN Search Service Beta Now Available

November 11, 2004, 02:49 AM by Bing | 32 Comments

On behalf of the MSN Search team I'm very pleased to announce that we've begun the worldwide rollout of our new algorithmic search service Beta release.  I invite you to check it out at http://beta.search.msn.com and send us feedback via the "help us improve" links.  You can identify the Beta version by the text "Search (beta)" next to the MSN butterfly logo.

This is an update of the service we started building in early 2003.  We released it as a "Technology Preview" in July this year and more recently in early October at http://techpreview.search.msn.com to solicit early feedback.  I want to convey a big thank you to all who sent bug reports and feedback on the tech preview... the feedback loop really helped, we learned a lot, and we made a number of changes in response to your suggestions.  I hope you're happy with the results.

If you want to engage in general discussion on the new search service please visit our newsgroup.

We know still have a lot of work left to do.  We'll keep you updated here as we make progress.

osh

Oshoma Momoh
General Manager, MSN Search Program Management

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Comments

Vatsan

Posted On November 11, 2004, 05:07 AM
2:07 am PST, A little bit of ego-searching.
http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=Vatsan&FORM=QBHP

This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon.

:-(


Anon

Posted On November 11, 2004, 05:42 AM
Please please please go with your own look and feel, don't use Google's.

Kimspitstop.dk

Posted On November 11, 2004, 06:31 AM
MSN Search Crew,

Congratulation

Looking forward to examine your "own"
new algorithm, speed and feature's. ...

My first impression: Thumb up :O)

Regard's






Dan

Posted On November 11, 2004, 06:56 AM
Loving it so far :)

Alex

Posted On November 11, 2004, 08:02 AM
Not it's not!!! When I execute a search all I get (after a very long wait, i.e. 20 times longer than Google) is "This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon."

Set the web free, Google & Firefox rule!!!

Timur Fanshteyn

Posted On November 11, 2004, 08:14 AM
It is interesting to compare searches against google searches. I did a search on my name and here are the scores: Google: 19 - Microsoft 10

However: Google did not find my blog page even though google supports blogspot on the googlebar.

I vote for microsoft based on relevance of returned information!

laurence timms

Posted On November 11, 2004, 09:25 AM
No, I'm just getting 'service unavailable' all the time. Bleh bleh bleh.

Scott Galloway

Posted On November 11, 2004, 09:51 AM
Sorry to say that even for a Beta it's pretty poor - hope it's just load issues, but on the few occasions that searches do work, they're slow and of poor relevance.

Luke

Posted On November 11, 2004, 10:05 AM
only single word seaches seem to work!

and this blog looks terrible in firefox

Dylan Greene

Posted On November 11, 2004, 10:47 AM
This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon.

Not a good sign. You should be using this site (your blog) to tell us what is going wrong and how you are going to fix it.

Jeremy C. Wright

Posted On November 11, 2004, 10:56 AM
Hey guys, take all of this complaining with a grain of salt. Most people have fairly short memories of other beta launches, even Google's. The search engine looked great, even though it was slow.

I'll be covering this for Linux Today and Linux News later. Too bad I can't get an interview from you guys.

Sriram

Posted On November 11, 2004, 11:58 AM
I wrote a review (kinda harsh) at http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/sriram/archive/2004/11/10/31687.aspx

I want you guys to do well - and I hope this beta isnt the best you have to offer

Larry Osterman

Posted On November 11, 2004, 12:23 PM
My biggest comment is that your search hits don't handle transient content (like news sites and weblogs) very well - most of the time, the indices seem to pick up the main page link, not the permalink.

miovix

Posted On November 11, 2004, 12:35 PM
Very very good!!!!! Congratulations!

Evan Norman

Posted On November 11, 2004, 12:56 PM
Everything seems to be working pretty well, with similar results to Google coming up for me. The paid results at the bottom are kinda annoying.

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