Microsoft's Progress on Search

Following up their acquisition of LookOut, Microsoft demonstrated its desktop/e-mail search technology.  I wonder if the demo incorporated technology from the LookOut acquisition or if MS already had related technology in house. 

I also received a promotional e-mail in my Hotmail Inbox yesterday to try out their new MSN Search.  One change seems to be that you can now select the sources (web, news, movies, stocks, etc.) you want to search in a pulldown next to the search box.  This pulldown should disappear soon (shall report on this a few months down) - its additional clicks between the user and the SERP - never a good thing. 

MS also seems to have made some progress with their internal research efforts on creating their own algorithmic search.  MSN right now uses Inktomi search results (earlier used to use results from Looksmart) and keyword advertisement from Overture - both Yahoo! properties. 

MS' move to develop its own algorithmic search is similar to Yahoo!'s moves last year when they aggressively developed/acquired (Overture, Inktomi, Altavista, ...) to build their own search technology after having used Google to deliver search results until 2003.  Here is an article about MSN's recent search efforts and its impact on Google and Yahoo!