MSN has launched the “new” Live Search portal to address four main areas of concern:
- Relevance (why you use the search product)
- Speed (patience is a virtue, but not what users really want in search query results)
- Streamlining Concept (better usability)
- High-Interest Content (universal search product anyone?)
The MSN team claim that this is the biggest update since the launch of Live Search in 2005:
This week we’re excited to launch a major update to Live Search that’s relevant, faster and easier to use. Hundreds of us rolled up our sleeves and dug deep. We pored over your feedback, analyzed the data and talked to thousands of users. How major is this? It’s our biggest update since our debut in January 2005.
What have they done that will really affect your experience with Live Search:
- Sitelinks-like addition to the first result for major search terms (see more about Sitelinks here, here and here)
- Related Searches in the right sidebar, above Sponsored Sites
- Stock Information
- Sport Teams Integration
- Image Integration
- News Integration
- and all of these new features have feedback areas to respond to MSN weather the new additions were helpful.
What does this mean for MSN Live Search?
At first glance it appears that the MSN Live Search development team is working to bring value back to their search engine (users too), by focusing on the extras that keep users coming back.
Is it too late?
This question has not been answered yet, but it appears that they are not wanting to go quietly into the night. I look forward to these changes and hope that they can bring a competitive spirit that will help the user to be the focus and providing them what they are looking for as the goal.
What do you think?
Have you used the new Live Search?
Have they whitewashed or really built a better engine?
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