MSN introduce new range of ‘Live’ search tools

As well as Ask’s relaunch (above), Microsoft has also been quietly working on a new range of web services – such as search, email and maps – to try to build their market share across a variety of areas to compete with Google’s increasing array of products. These new tools are all branded as Windows Live, and mark a move away from the traditional MSN portal service, to the ‘tool’ focused approach taken by Google.

Windows Live makes use of AJAX technology, which allows users to interact with web pages and fetch information without whole pages needing to be reloaded – allowing the development of web services with functionality similar to standalone software.

We have reviewed the main Microsoft Live services below, to help you decide if they will be a useful tool for your everyday work and research, plus we look at some implications for UK marketers.

Live Local: mapping and local search programs have a great number of uses and also have the potential to provide targeted advertising for local ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses. We have already seen a number of websites making use of the Google Maps API, including the national estate agency service, Ononemap.

The most impressive feature of this new Live Local program is the ‘birds eye view’ which provides high definition photos of major use cities, such as New York. Although coverage is quite limited at the moment to a handful of US cities, it has raised the bar further and demonstrates how local search and mapping services may develop to another level in the next few years.

Live Mail: this feature, open for beta testing to current Hotmail users, aims to emulate Microsoft’s offline email software, Outlook, by offering a similar ‘panel’ based format. Although it doesn’t currently appear to be as powerful as Google’s Gmail service, if this new MSN service can be refined, it will be a welcome enhancement for Hotmail users who make up a reported 52% of UK web mail users, and who have been struggling with a dated interface for some time.

Live Search: the main advancement with the Live Search tool has been the change to its interface. A range of ‘vertical’ options, such as image or product search are placed prominently and it uses a scrolling frame of results, replacing the traditional range of result pages – making it easier to search through. This search engine still uses the same results as MSN Search, which we have found to be more susceptible to spam than most other search engines, and has a way to go before being able to match the quality of results Google provides.

Although clearly needing refinement, as these services develop they are likely to form the main competition to Google’s expanding range of tools. Marketers may also have the opportunity use Microsoft Advertising pay per click advertising to target users of these personalised tools using demographics as well as keywords.

If you’d like to know more about Microsoft’s range of new services, please contact us for more details.

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