New version of Live Search is available!

A new version of Live Search is now released. this release supposedly created a WOW when it was first showcased at the recently held company meeting in Redmond. There is progress in two critical areas:

  1. the core technology that delivers relevant search has improved dramatically. 
  2. there is focus on four key search experiences: Entertainment, Health, Local, and Shopping (represents 40% of total queries)

the search index has been expanded 4x times! also there is a improvement in query intent for misspelled and plural words.

In the entertainment field a unique way of showing content as it relates to other celebrities (xRank) has been developed.  (Try tom cruise and check out the xRank and the live in browser previews of the videos) . in shopping, you can search for a product or a product category (try Palm Treo 650 or the category “digital cameras”) and utilize not just the rich answer, but the expanded opinion index that intelligently crawls review sites . it also presents abstracts the pros and cons as well as the topics that drive the online conversation.  here's a preview of the search on google and on live search:

image 

image

live search was already a leader as far as image and video search was considered. i think it now takes a lead over google in shopping and celebrity search.

what remains to be seen is how well will live be able to monetize the search enhancements? the adCenter is still not fully functional and there is still no affiliate model for live search.

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