Live Search

Live Search
Live Search homepage
URL	http://search.live.com
Commercial?	yes
Type of site	Search Engine
Registration	optional
Available language(s)	multilingual
Owner	Microsoft
Created by	Microsoft
Launched	March 8 2006 (beta) September 11 2006 (1.0) 2007-09-26 (2.0)
Current status	active

Live Search searching for "Wikipedia"

Live Search (formerly Windows Live Search) is the name of Microsoft's web search engine, successor to MSN Search, designed to compete with the industry leaders Google and Yahoo!. Live Search is accessible through Microsoft's Live.com and MSN web portal. The new search engine offers some innovative features, such as the ability to view additional search results on the same web page (instead of needing to click through to subsequent search result pages) and the ability to dynamically adjust the amount of information displayed for each search-result (i.e. just the title, a short summary, or a longer summary). It also allows the user to save searches and see them updated automatically on Live.com.

History

The first public beta of Live Search was unveiled on March 8 2006, with the final release on September 11 2006 replacing MSN Search. On March 21 2007, it was announced that Microsoft would separate its Live Search developments from the Windows Live services family. Live Search was integrated into the Live Search and Ad Platform headed by Satya Nadella, part of Microsoft's Platform and Systems division. As part of this change, Live Search was consolidated with Microsoft adCenter.^[1] In the roll-over from MSN Search to Live Search, Microsoft stopped using Picsearch as their image search provider and started performing their own image search, fueled by their own internal image search algorithms.^[2]

Search products

In addition to its tool for searching webpages, Live Search also provides services for searching:

Webmaster Services

Live Search allow webmasters to manage the web crawling status of their own websites through Live Search Webmaster Center. Additionally, users may also submit contents to Live Search via the following methods:

• Live Search Local Listing Center allow businesses to add business listings onto Live Search Maps and Live Search Local
• Live Product Upload allow merchants to upload products information onto Live Product Search
• Live Search Books Publisher Program allow book publishers to upload information onto Live Search Books
• Soapbox on MSN Video allow users to upload videos for searching via Live Search Video

Other Search Services

Live Search Mobile allow search results to be displayed onto a mobile device. Microsoft also develops and operates other search tools and services including Windows Desktop Search. There are also many Windows Live services available that are not directly search-related. Windows Live Hotmail, for example, is a webmail application, but still include search features.

Search results

Live Search is not limited to reporting back indexed pages corresponding to a plain search query. When entering a search query using multiple words Live Search will search results trying to match all the keywords. However Live Search also contains advanced search options available through an advanced link and then dropdown options or directly via entering advanced options in the search query:

Advanced search options

In searches on Live search you can use operators to improve search results. Live Search recognizes the following operator symbols:

• + - Finds pages that contain ALL the terms preceded by the + symbol, and allows inclusion of terms that are usually ignored.
• " - Finds the exact words as quoted.
• () : Finds or excludes pages that contain a group of words.
• AND or & : Finds pages that contain ALL the terms or phrases.
• NOT or -: Excludes pages that contain a term or phrase.
• OR or | : Finds pages that contain either of the terms or phrases

Advanced search keywords

A variety of advanced search operators can be used to perform more sophisticated queries. These are ^[3]:

• filetype:<filetype> - restrict the results of the Live Search to a particular filetype extension e.g. .html, .txt, .pdf, .doc, .xls, and .ppt
• contains:<filetype> - returns the pages linking to the specified filetype.
• site: <URL> - restricts the returned hits to a specific website.
• link:<URL> - Finds sites that have links to the specified website or domain.
• linkdomain:<URL> - Finds sites that link to any page within the specified domain.
• linkfromdomain:<URL> - Finds sites that are linked from the specified domain
• url:<URL> - Checks whether the listed domain or web address is in the Live Search index
• ip:<ip-address> - Finds sites that are hosted by a specific IP address.
• language:<language code> - Returns web pages for a specific language.
• loc: or location:<language code> - Returns web pages from a specific country or region
• inanchor: or inbody: or intitle: or inurl:<searchphrase> - Returns pages that contain the specified term in the metadata
• prefer:<searchphrase> - Adds emphasis to a search term or another operator to help focus the search results.
• feed:<searchphrase> - Finds RSS or Atom feeds on a website for the terms you search for.
• hasfeed:<searchphrase> - Finds web pages that contain an RSS or Atom feed on a website for the terms you search for.

Sidebar gadgets

Live Search Windows Sidebar gadgets

Live Search Gadget is for Windows Vista's Sidebar that uses Live Search to fetch the user's search results and render them directly in the gadget. The gadget allow users to configure up to two additional custom searches. Users can also search using Live Search Macros from this gadget by creating their own macros or find one in Windows Live Gallery. Live Search Traffic Gadget displays real-time traffic conditions using Live Search Maps. The gadget provides shortcuts to driving directions, local search and full-screen traffic view. Currently only traffic data from 23 selected US cities are supported, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington DC. As of October 30, 2007, both Live Search and Live Search Traffic gadgets were removed from Windows Live Gallery due to possible security concerns.^[4]

Tie-ins and Promotions

Since May 1 2006, Live Search has been providing the search results for Amazon's A9 search service and the experimental Ms. Dewey interactive search site. On January 17 2007, Microsoft announced that all searches done from a special portal site would lead to a donation to the UNHCR's organization for refugee children, ninemillion.org. The amount to be donated is not readily available on Microsoft's sites, but Reuters AlertNet reports that the amount to be donated is $0.01 per search, with a minimum of $100,000 and a maximum of $250,000 (equivalent to 25 million searches).^[5] In April 2007, Microsoft launched Live Search Club, where users can win prizes by playing word games that generate Live Search queries.

Criticisms

Alexa Comparison Chart

Live Search has received much criticism from reviewers and other competing search providers, such as Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com and AOL. Live Search and its predecessor MSN Search have been generally losing market share since 2006, mainly due to their lack of marketing and frequent changes. Many reviewers have criticized the lack of definition for Microsoft's range of Windows Live services, and many users don't know the existence of Live Search other than discovering it from Internet Explorer's search box. Live Search is also criticized for its frequent change and redesigns, creating unfamiliarity for its users. ^[6]

References

1. ^ Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft severs Live Search from the rest of the Windows Live family
2. ^ Chris Sherman, September 12, 2006, Microsoft Upgrades Live Search Offerings
3. ^ Advanced search keywords. Live.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
4. ^ LiveSide.net: Yes, the Live Search and Live Search Traffic gadgets are gone: security concerns cited
5. ^ Microsoft Donates to Ninemillion.org - Reuters AlertNet
6. ^ "Microsoft Search Losing Market Share" InsideMicrosoft part of the Blog News Channel, Nathan Weinberg, 2006-11-27

• Microsoft Unveils Live Search - Softpedia

See also

• Windows Live
• Ms. Dewey

External links

• Live Search
• Official Live Search team blog