Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

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Microsoft Launches Academic Search Beta.

Microsoft have just announced the beta release of its Windows Live Academic Search service in seven countries. The new search service is designed to help students, researchers and university faculty conduct research across a spectrum of academic journals.

The program is a cooperative effort between Windows Live Search, industry association CrossRef, and more than 10 leading publishers. The initial beta release will target the subjects of computer science, electrical engineering and physics and the company is working with multiple organizations to bring new subjects online in the near future. Windows Live Academic Search will offer peer-reviewed content from leading scholarly societies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and leading publishers Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons Inc. Windows Live Academic Search can be found at
http://academic.live.com and will provide English-language results in
select global markets.

Key user features include:

• Preview pane which allows customers to see the abstract of a
  result quickly by simply hovering their mouse over the result
• The ability to group and sort results by author, journal,
  conference and date rather than just looking at a flat list of search
  results
• Citation support in two major bibliographic formats which
  enables customers to quickly compile citations
• Author "live links" that will automatically connect to the
  search results of articles associated with a particular author by simply
  clicking on the hyperlink of the author's name
• Detail slider that allows consumers to control the amount of
  information that they see in the search results
• Direct links to publishers published version allows customers
  to seamlessly access the full text of the article if the user is on the
  network of the institution that subscribes to the full text.
• Support for macros which allow customers to more finely tune
  their search results and RSS so that consumers can be alerted when new
  information on a topic or author that they care about becomes available
  which can be added to a customer's Live.com page will be coming in the
  following weeks.

Other organizations working with Microsoft on the Windows Live Academic
Search tool in addition to CrossRef, the IEEE, the ACM, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., and Elsevier include: Taylor & Francis Group, the American
Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, the Institute of
Physics, Ex Libris, TDNet, Blackwell, , Nature Publishing, British
Library, and OCLC.

The beta service is available with English versions in the
United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and
Australia. Additional markets and content will be added throughout the
beta period.

M.P