the new MSN search: pretty underwhelming?

EricNoah

Adventurer

• Nov 14, 2004

• #1

Anyone try the new MSN beta search engine? http://beta.search.msn.com/

I don't get the feeling that it's very good. The results don't seem all that relevant compared to Google.

Maybe someone with a lot of time could do a comparison on some searches common to RPG players (D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, D20) and let us know what they think?

 

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Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Nov 15, 2004

• #2

Just tried it - I wasn't too impressed. I saw an article the other day about how it trawls Google for its results (or something).

http://www.webpronews.com/insiderre...tCrawlingGoogleResultsForNewSearchEngine.html

 

Dimwhit

Explorer

• Nov 15, 2004

• #3

They're going to have to do something quite special to replace Google. And I just don't see it there.

 

reveal

Adventurer

• Nov 15, 2004

• #4

Not too impressed. I did a search for "d&d" and compared the first 10 results.

MSN: 4 results actually had to do with Dungeons and Dragons. The rest were personal web pages, one an MSN group, and racing stuff.

Google: 7 results actually had to do with Dungeons and Dragons. The other three were 2 dead links and 1 racing site.

Plus, MSN puts ads at the top while Google puts them on the side. Very non-intrusive for Google.

Overall, bleh. I've seen better but I've seen worse. Pretty middle of the road. It's not going to make me change my surfing habits.

 

Angcuru

First Post

• Nov 15, 2004

• #5

Well, like any Microsoft product, the final release is also the beta test.