Google vs MSN Search Beta: An unscientific study
12-Nov-2004MSN Search has been launched in Beta. Alastair has a good meditation on what it means, where it comes from, and where it’s going.
I decided to give MSN Search Beta an unscientific workout.
Let’s see if when I search for “MSN Search Beta” (the words in the title) it returns itself at top of the list:
Ok… maybe that was a glitch. I waited a minute and tried again.
That’s better.
Lets try comparing something. MSN is said to be based on Lookout for Outlook, from a company that MicroSoft purchased a little while ago. This is going to be a pretty easy task for a Microsoft search engine. Pretty much every reviewer is going to be using terms from the press release and preliminary research they’ve done, right?
I’m guessing that when people search for “lookout outlook” on the Intahwebs they’re not looking for North Stradbroke Island. Feel free to email me if you think I’m wrong and I’ll post a correction.
Kudos to MSN search. The first link is a short blog entry journaling the acquisition of Lookout by Microsoft.
The next relevant link is #8 which is someone talking about Microsoft’s Outlook Lookout search utility. Strangely, the utility itself doesn’t have much weight in MSN’s ranking system. The most definitive answers (by my judgement) would be the current and previous Lookout home pages and they aren’t listed on the first page of results.
Let’s see what a rival search engine does with the same search.
Based on 15 minutes of play my verdict is that I might use it when it’s more reliable, ranks results better, indexes my local PC, performs better than Google, and my desktop freezes over… which I guess could be the next time I upgrade Windows.
Ars did a followup report on MSN search, confirming the
Alastair | 12-Nov-2004Ars did a followup report on MSN search, confirming the result of your test, namely that it sometimes would “fail on searches that should be obvious successes”.
I can understand the logic of launching early, with a “beta” tag, but this is a really risky strategy for Microsoft. Early impressions of a product/service tend to linger, and this includes early problems that are subsequently fixed. A good example of this is the Apple Newton, that fixed it’s initially bad handwriting recognition, but not before they got ridiculed on The Simpsons.
Another thing that occurs to me is that “MSN Search” does not verb well. “Just MSN Search it” does not have the same ring to it as “Just Google it”.
Jon Udell has an uncharacteristically cheeky take...
Alastair | 12-Nov-2004Jon Udell has an uncharacteristically cheeky take…
I don't think it's too bad to launch a beta
Chris | 12-Nov-2004I don’t think it’s too bad to launch a beta product if you have something that needs some seriously broad and deep testing that you can’t get in a lab. When you add the intended or unintended hype of a head-t-head battle for search engine world domination, your beta is going to cop some serious flak if it’s not up to to job and threaten future interest… like it’s done to me :)
At least my flak is fresh, pure and natural.
MSN search MSN Search is now out in Beta. brainsnorkel isn't
Things I've Seen | 15-Nov-2004MSN search
MSN Search is now out in Beta. brainsnorkel isn’t impressed…Based on 15 minutes of play my verdict is that I might use it when it’s more reliable, ranks results better, indexes my local PC, performs better than Google, and my…