Microsoft's New Live Search

Microsoft’s New Live Search

By Mary Jo Foley September 26, 2007, 7:16 AM PDT

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Screen Shot: New Live Search Entertainment Answers

Microsoft is starting to roll out the fall update to its Live Search engine. Over the next few weeks, users will begin to see more relevant and comprehensive results, according to Microsoft.

rnrnHere is a shot of how Microsoft will present entertainment-search results to users of the new Live Search. Entertainment is one of four verticals upon which Microsoft focused with the new release. Microsoft has expanded the “Rich Answers” it provides in these verticals (entertainment, shopping, health, local/maps) and integrated content specific to these four areas more deeply into Live Search, company officials say.

Screen Shot: New Live Search Local Answers

Microsoft also has souped up its local results with the fall Live Search release. This screen shot shows the way Live Search users will view local search results, whether browsing on PCs or mobile devices. Contact information, hours of operation and other relevant data is more tightly and deeply integrated.

Screen Shot: Live Search's New Book Search Results

In this sample screen shot, the Book Search functionality that is integrated into the fall Live Search release is highlighted. Book content becomes more integrated with Web content in this release.

Screen Shot: New Live Search Home Page

The updated Windows Live search page looks, basically, like what LiveSide.Net reported a few days ago. The home page gets new Video and MSN search tabs, and adds a plug for the recently introduced Windows Live Suite (a handful of Windows Live services united via a common installer and updater).

Screen Shot:: Live Search Video Search Results

The fall update to Live Search now integrates video-search results. Note that MSN Soapbox videos are part of the results returned by video-search queries. The rich thumbnail views are part of the update, as well.

Screen Shot: Live Search Video Query Results

The integrated video search in the fall Live Search update also displays video query results the same way it displays entertainment query results: with rich thumbnails.

Screen Shot: Live Search xRank Celebrity Results

Celebrity searches currently comprise about 10 percent of all search queries, according to Microsoft. In the fall Live Search update, Microsoft is giving celebrity searches the celebrity treatment. The new Live Search xRank feature is all about who’s hot and not.

Screen Shot: Live Search Shopping

With the fall release of Live Search, Microsoft is adding more user-generated content, like reviews. and simplifying the one-click buying process.

Screen Shot: Live Search's HealthVault

Microsoft is focusing heavily as part of its fall search update on making health content more accessible to consumers. Microsoft is planning to integrate more health results into its Live Search, as well as make health answers available through HealthVault, its specific health-search service.

By Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She

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