InsideMicrosoft

Inside MSN

Microsoft has a page it has been directing MSN.com visitors to, one that explains why it belives MSN Search is a superior engine, and encourages feedback. I noticed the link to the page in the constantly changing graphic news box on MyMSN, and the “news” may have mentioned search engines, but there was nothing in there indicating it was for all intents and purposes an ad. I believe the text asked me if my search engine “had game”. Hey, MSN, you might want to keep ads and news seperated.

The shoutbox reveals some opinions of regular MSN users, and the majority of them are not so positive.

• Search is fast, but the results are not impressive.
• I don’t feel your search feature is good enough. There are certain topics I have put in and your search engine gives me results for everything but what I am looking for.
• I wish to express that Americans focus their attentions too heavily upon the lives of celebrities. While you cannot control the inclination of societal influences that lend to masses living vicariously through the lives of the rich and famous, your agency could indeed pursue avenues to include more important material on your website more often.
• I think it’s pretty funny that so many people are looking for more “real” news on your website - and yet the most-searched topic on MSN.com is Lindsay Lohan.

I find it interesting that MSN would print feedback that wasn’t entirely positive, although it might be to show that they are listening. Even more interesting is that they clearly cleaned up the feedback, correcting spelling and grammar (when have you ever read a shout box with no “lol” or “wtf”?).

There’s also a poll asking what people believe is the most important feature in a search engine. Out of 9383 responses (at the time of this writing), 80% want accurate results, followed by 8% who want advanced search capability, 5% who want a large quantity of results, 4% who want fast results, and 2% who just want helpful search tips.

Besides the shout box, the site includes plenty of useful information on MSN Search, and serves as a pretty good primer for people wanting to learn about the new search engine. If someone is interested in learning what MSN Search can do, (besides coming here ) this site can serve as a pretty useful guide.

March 30th, 2005 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General, MSN, Search | one comment
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