Microsoft updates Live Search, promises richer and deeper results
Microsoft has just announced major updates of its Live Search portal with a promise that it now gives users richer and deeper results. Boasting of an improved core search technology and deeper advancement in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health, Microsoft is hoping to catch up with rival search engines, Google and Yahoo, in the race to dominate the search engine industry.
Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft said that with the updated Live Search, Microsoft’s engineers have focused on the areas that matter to Live Search’s 185 million customers who use the search engine monthly.
“We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time.”
The new Live Search banks on two major updates focusing on providing more meaningful search results and improving search algorithm to effectively deliver specialized content through Microsoft’s vertical search areas.
The Live Search’s enhancements can be categorized into several key areas:
- Over fourfold increase in index size,
- Substantial improvements in understanding query intent,
- Significant enhancements to core algorithms,
- Increased focus on query refinement,
- New web data extraction model,
- Expansion of rich answers,
According to Microsoft’s 40% of searches conducted on Live Search fall into various specific categories, entertainment, shopping, health and local search. Hence, the new Live Search has been designed to deliver specialized content across these vertical search areas.
For instance, the entertainment search has been developed into providing users with the latest entertainment news through search results comprising of relevant links, images and a new video search with smart motion previews, facts and buzz and even celebrity ranking.
During Microsoft’s Searchification Day, where the updated Live Search was presented to a special group of bloggers, press people and Microsoft partners, Nadalla announced that Microsoft would continue to improve its Live Search portal, with major updates to be done once or twice a year and minor improvements to be carried out monthly. This plan is to support Microsoft’s thrust of catching up with rival search engines and hopefully improve Live Search’s current standing in the search engine race.
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