Archive: March, 2007

Microsoft took second shot at Google in a week, this time targeting organic search, Google’s signature product. At a press event held on their Redmond Washington campus, Microsoft engineers showed off a number of search related features MSN is working to introduce in the coming months. To demonstrate the strength of their pending products, Microsoft evoked a name synonymous with excellence, Michael Jordan.

Search and other online services are extremely important to Microsoft. Though their core competencies have (arguably) always centered around their box-and-ship software, the industry and its users appear to be moving to online services.

MSN is a constant third in search stats, hence its constant (though inconsistent) focus on search technologies.

Calling the competition between major search firms an arms race, New York Times reporter John Markoff was one of 300 reporters invited to, “… an event intended to showcase the company’s research prowess.”

Four tools, each of which clearly resemble products currently offered by Google and MSN’s other rival, Yahoo are outlined in Markoff’s column today. An interesting note about these tools, though they are similar to what Google and Yahoo offer, they have unique attributes only Microsoft can incorporate into their system.