Microsoft to show off new search: Will it matter?
Summary: If a company with 8 percent market share revamped its search engine would anyone notice? That's the looming question as Microsoft prepares to unveil its search upgrade at the D: All Things Digital conference next week.
If a company with 8 percent market share revamped its search engine would anyone notice? That's the looming question as Microsoft prepares to unveil its search upgrade at the D: All Things Digital conference next week.
The long-awaited upgrade to Microsoft’s search engine will soon make its debut. This unveiling will be the long-awaited 'Kumo' search revamp.
Sources with knowledge of the situation said the company is expected to demonstrate it at our D: All Things Digital conference next week.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to appear onstage at the event, a three-day event that hosts top players from the tech and media industries in interviews by AllThingsD.com Co-Executive Editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
Best line: "Sources with knowledge of the situation." Did John, who writes for the outfit that puts on the conference, walk down the hall and ask Kara and Walt who was showing up? Seriously though, it's unclear whether Microsoft can unveil much of anything that will matter.
Consider the comScore stats from April.
If Microsoft really wants to make search waves perhaps it should announce a deal with Yahoo. Other than that Microsoft can create the best search on the planet and still have a rough time grabbing share.
Also see: Kiev and Kumo: The long and winding road to Live Search's rebrand
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Talkback
MS Search
MS has to first do just that - be the best search on the planet. I'm glad that MS' new search effort is based on Powerset technology. I'm however worried that MS doesn't believe that its present core search algorithms are wanting. They may be fine for relatively simple searches such as searches on people and for products, but when using more complex search phrases, they really suck. If MS doesn't recognize this, I think the company is in big, big trouble, and search will continue to be a money pit.
If the Powerset guys take over Live Search, there may be hope. I'm however not holding my breath.
1st try being best on the computer
It actually has
Thats not true!
Don't take me as a fanboy. I urge you to actually use it before passing comments.
Improved
Partly agree!
1) Its not free
2) Good for enterprise but then so are many other paid enterprise search solutions. Overkill for average consumer.
3) Vista search is more tightly integrated into Windows(since its part of windows) and does its job well enough to be very usable for the average consumer.
I'll use Wolfram before anything MS offers
If you use MS products, its only a matter of time before they will find a way to make revenue by making you pay for it with some kind of EULA and you have no way out of it.
One simple example, VISTA, I DONT WANT IT, but you cant get a new computer with out it if you are a simple Joe. YUCK!!!! (there are ways to obtain XP or Linux systems, but they are all inconvenient very few out of the box and none at your local superstore). Why not have the choice of Ubuntu/Mandriva/Android/etc.
And System 7 will cost more...
Geesh... Google and Yahoo have kept search free, let it be that way.
Encarta comes to mind..... glad about its fate.
yeah....
Just a search discussion. Deep breaths. Not a Vista thread. There you go.
Clueless kid!
I know you are a headline reading ignorant self confessed tech commentator but the fact remains that 5 year old kids know more about tech than you.
Adn what is System 7?? And really I am sick of those other 'PAID' search sites too....wait what??
And really where have you used an Android PC before?
Correction: Stephen Wolfram is MORE than a "guy"
I can't believe it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wolfram
Yes, and you should learn to do the same before attempting something stupid
Like responding to your comments
You <s>could</s> <u>SHOULD</u> have started earlier
Correction: You should have started at least 3 posts earlier
You should have started refraining from posting before you did that.
So, next time you plan on posting something think a little, pause for a while. Go browse the Internet, learn something, hey go to wikipedia, there are some good articles there.
@inaction or uralbas or whatever other id's you use for your pathetic self
Here is my response again. And this time point out exactly what your problem is with it.
"Do you even know what wolfram is. Stephen Wolfram is a guy, Wolfram Alpha is a research company..Maybe you want to say Wolfram Alpha which is product of Wolfram research..which BTW IS NOT A WEB SEARCH ENGINE."
Absolutely correct since you admitted to 'using wolfram' over Live Search. And wolfram is a company or a person but definitely not a products and 100% not a web search engine.
"I know you are a headline reading ignorant self confessed tech commentator but the fact remains that 5 year old kids know more about tech than you."
Because you were clueless about what wolfram alpha was and yet you claimed using it. You had only read headlines about wolfram that why you didn't know anything about it.
"And what is System 7?? And really I am sick of those other 'PAID' search sites too....wait what??"
You wrote 'System 7' and claimed google and yahoo are keeping search free even though no company has ever offered nor are stupid enough to ever offer paid search. Encarta was not a web search engine dumbass.
"And really where have you used an Android PC before? "
You proposed Android as a good alternative operating system for computers even though you have never used one because there aren't any.
Now, 'Ural blah blah' or whoever f*** you are, think twice before posting more garbage here.
But you promised...   and besides you are going paranoid
(don't go away, I'll be back shortly)
...
Well, I can see nothing wrong with his post, apart from that remark about encarta, I never used it so I don't know what to make of it.
To me Uralbas wrote a <b>very good post</b> which serves only to reinforce the bad impression I had of you.
RE: Microsoft to show off new search: Will it matter?
Poor, poor Microsoft
http://news.cnet.com/State-questions-Microsoft-search-plans/2110-1038_3-5191678.html
The only other proven method Microsoft has to fall back on is to buy out a succesfull search company who have already done all the hard work (R&D, user accquisition) - hello, Yahoo!
Google are miles ahead in their game. Look at the Google extras available, free, on the Google website. The web trends application alone is enough to make a grown monopolist cry.
The terms "Google" and "Search" are interchangeable in common speech, whereas "Windows" and "Virus" are the only Microsoft slanted synonyms that spring quickly to mind.
Given that Microsoft can't buy or steal Google, they are basically stuffed. Microsoft haven't a hope in hell of producing a comparable service.
As another poster has pointed out, any service which Microsoft produce will be another tool for the monetisation of the end user. Google search is OS agnostic, and it's FREE. Microsoft have yet to produce an OS agnostic anything. Microsoft are dinosaurs, still entrenched in the drive to dominate by aggressive, anti-social engineering. Just look at their efforts to destroy odf and the threat of interoperability odf brings. Microsoft are proprietary dinosaurs, still clinging to the notion that their destiny is to build, staff and collect user cash from the internet's toll-gates.
Poor, poor Microsoft. Competing on merit? No. Oh no oh no oh no.
And even if M$ were to
Users would be wondering what happened to yahoo? "Kumo... Bling...? WTF is This. I'm going to google."
Sorry M$, you can't always buy Market Share.