Search Engine Update

MSN Search went live with a new version of its site.  There
have been a whole variety of minor tweaks and design changes to MSN.  There have also been some substantial changes.

Most noticeable are the new "Popular Search Topics" links that now appear below the search box, after you perform a MSN search. These are suggestions that are suppose to assist you in narrowing your request to a particular topic.  

Another way they are attempting to improve the quality of their results is by having editors monitor search logs and provide human intervention where needed to improve the listings.

Misspellings are a good example. For common misspellings that the editors notice are being used repetitively the engine will bring up results similar to the correct spelling.  

This human intervention can be confusing to those of you trying to figure out why a web site comes up at the top of a search if the search wo rds don't appear in the description, meta tags, title or even on the text on the page. Answer: MSN editors may have manually placed a site into the top results. MSN main results come from LookSmart but MSN editors have the ability to rewrite a site's description to make it appear in response to a particular search keyword or phrase.

The feature that allowed those using Internet Explorer to save results has now been completely removed.  Users
weren't taking advantage of it in large numbers so it was discontinued in the name of less clutter. MSN Search also added more white space to make the results more aesthetically pleasing.  "We put white space to let page breathe," said Philip Carmichael, group program manager for MSN Search. "The results were definitely running together."

Numbers for each listing have also been added to each of the links on the page.  I feel this helps tremendously in getting around the page and keeping a user aware of their location in the search results.    "We think the numbers are helping because if you go to page two, then come back, it's pretty easy to remember a site's position on the page," Carmichael said.

MSN Search
<http://search.msn.com/>

Jay Mock
Director of Internet Marketing
Compass Web Site Design