Search Engine Reviews: MSN Search and Go2Net/MetaCrawler

If you're wondering why there's been no advertising blitz for Microsoft's new search engine, MSN Search, visit the site and take a long look. It seems to me that Microsoft is using MSN Search to promote Microsoft Network (Microsoft's online service) instead of developing it into a premium search engine.

In fact, the homepage icon links to Microsoft Network's homepage rather than MSN Search. You have to perform a search to get back to MSN Search's home page.

Special Features

The special features on MSN Search are identical to those offered by Microsoft Network. They are called Services, but appear to be roughly comparable to what other search engines call subject channels.

There are 16 services including Autos, Entertainment, Games, Personal Finance, Real Estate, etc. With a few exceptions, they offer only Microsoft services instead of the broad array of websites and information offered by other search engines.

For example, the Travel Service offers only Microsoft's Expedia; the Entertainment Service is based on Microsoft's Sidewalk (which offers information about U.S. localities): and the Auto Service features Microsoft's CarPoint.

One very useful feature (listed under Microsoft) is a menu for searching Microsoft's enormous web site. If you've ever tried to find anything there, you'll appreciate this service.

Inktomi powers MSN Search's first-rate search system (although nowhere is this acknowledged). HotBot also uses Inktomi's system, although MSN Search and HotBot use different search interfaces and have somewhat different menu options.

Search Tips

Basic Search: MSN Search's search system supports the plus and minus signs to require or exclude words, quotation marks to indicate a phrase, and the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. The only two menus included with the main search box provide formatting options for results.

Advanced Search: The Advanced Search menu in MSN Search includes choices for requiring all the words, any of the words, words in title, the exact phrase, Boolean phrase and links to URL. There are also menus for limiting your results by language, continent, specific domain, date last modified, and the audio-visual elements contained.

HotBot includes some of the above choices in conjunction with its main search box, and its Advanced Search menu offers more options than MSN Search.

Results: Each result contains the item's title, description and url. Again HotBot offers more. Its results include a relevance rating and the date last modified.

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