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Is Live The Death Of Google
ig into any self-labeled
"SEO forum" and you'll Most of the features on the site
probably find some neatly are functional; while a few
organized categories along the remain in the development stage
lines of "Google," "Yahoo," and and some are in between. Only
"MSN". Checking the amount of Passport members can fully
activity in each will reveal the customize the basic Live page
inclusion of Yahoo and especially with RSS feeds and "gadgets",
MSN seems to be a mere "courtesy" much like Google's portal page
on the part of the forum with Google Accounts. The basic,
founders. Microsoft has been un-customized page offers a
trying to change this for some search bar with the options of
time now, and the newly branded Web, Images, News, Local and QnA.
"Windows Live" is their latest
attempt to do so. Will all those The Web search performs much as
vacant MSN forums be lively any other search engines, only it
time soon? The short answer is serves ads from MSN's new ad
"no," read on to find out why. network instead of Adwords. It
does offer a "related search"
Live.com is many things, section, something Google has yet
including a search engine, to implement, but a standard
customizable web portal, and the feature of Ask.com for a while
latest attempt by Microsoft to now.
dig into Google's market share in
search. Its opening page is a The relevancy of the results, is,
simple one, in keeping with the as always, a matter of debate.
"expectations" built by Google, MSN's Search performs ably in
providing several options and an many regards, but one can't help
invitation for you to personalize but wonder if the larger index
it as your own web portal. Google provides means you're
missing something. Relevancy is Google News. Type in a word and
undeniably important, though. It you will get back a search list
is one of the core reasons a that is drawn from mainstream
searcher might actually make a news outlets, which have stories
switch, should his current engine that use your search term in the
of choice "let him down" too many first sentence or two. The Local
times. button will give you an
interactive map of the area where
The Images search is an hits for your search term are
improvement on the Google and found. There's little innovative
Yahoo technology, in that it here, but the presentation of the
offers dynamic thumbnail display map is nice. It offers similar
in a "pageless" layout. Pass your variations on the "route, aerial,
cursor over a thumbnail and it and hybrid" graphical display
will enlarge, with a brief popularized by Google Maps.
description and the URL where the
image can be found. The interface Windows Live Q&A allows you to
is intuitive and really feels post a question to the Windows
innovative. The thumbnails can be Q&A universe and see who has an
dynamically resized, and the answer. This system is still in
"scratchpad" can quickly create beta, so the technical specifics
collections by drag-and-drop. The may change. Users post a question
primary drawback to this very that is then open for 4 days to
innovate feature is that it will responses. At the end of the 4
respond slowly for those on day period, voting commences on
dial-up and with weaker machines. the answers provided. This
feature currently has no Google
The News Search is a direct analog, though Yahoo has a
search function that lacks the similar service.
"top stories" aggregator of
Additional Features- Betas Microsoft, with the "Office"
brand, seems to be targeting
A variety of betas for Live businesses.
services are available through
ideas.live.com, the MS equivalent Windows Live Shopping and Windows
of Google Labs. Live Product Search are both as
advertised: attempts to provide
The Windows Live Mail is an web-wide searches for products
in-house mail service that and shopping opportunities. The
provides you with two gigabytes product search gives a dynamic
of storage and an updated version display that can range from a
of what appears to be Outlook simple text list to a thumbnail
Express. It has some desktop layout that borrows from the
features and keyboard hotkeys, innovate image search layout.
new methods of sorting and Searches can be refined by
categorizing, but nothing seller, brand, and most
terribly radical. Windows Live interestingly, "related term",
Mail Desktop is a program that which provides a "tag cloud" of
allows you to manage multiple the kind popular with social
e-mail accounts, including AOL, bookmarking sites today.
Gmail and others. It also manages
newsgroups and RSS feeds. Windows Live Academic, mentioned
above, will provide search
Microsoft Live Office will be a opportunities in "thousands of
web hosting service designed to academic and research journals."
provide you with a basic business If their database has some heft
website and domain name. Google to it, this will be a great
Page Creator has tread this addition to the search process.
territory before, but was aimed It remains to be seen if this
at personal use, whereas academic resource will rival
Google Scholar. Like Google everything else served up by
Scholar, the results can be Microsoft has been done by
frustrating as many provide links Google, or other search engines,
only to abstracts or excerpts. before. Even if Microsoft was
Access to the full text of such able to "do it better", it will
results requires purchase or have a hard time convincing
subscription to the journal in existing users to switch from
which they were originally Google, as there is little
published. incentive to do so unless these
services are done so much better.
Conclusions That is not currently the case.
Microsoft merely offers an
Live.com's primary innovative "alternative" with Windows Live,
feature is the image search, and not an indispensable alternative.
even that has issues with slower
connections. So far, virtually
About the Author:
Mr. Lester worked in the IT industry for 5 years, before serving for 4 years as the webmaster for Apollo Hosting. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.
Read more articles by: Eric Lester
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