Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)

MSN Toolbar with Desktop Search

In October last year, Microsoft's MSN Search invited a group of 27 individuals from around the planet to decend on Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. The mix was SEO's, Journalists, Bloggers, Academics. The MSN Search Champs, as they became named, were part of MSN's internal beta test team. Aside from Microsoft employees, analysts, and reviewers the products were not shared with anyone else.

December 04, the initial beta version of the MSN Desktop Search was rolled out. In February MSN's internet Search went beta, this week the full Desktop Search product went live as part of the new Toolbar download.

MSN Search Press Release

MSN has invested heavily in creating its own algorithmic engine. This coupled with a direct answers service using Encarta, try asking for "speed of light".

Microsoft Delivers Powerful Upgrade to Desktop Search Capability for Windows Customers Searching just got smarter with launch of MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search.

The MSN® network of Internet services launched the new MSN Search Toolbar with Windows® Desktop Search, a suite of tools that helps people rapidly search across the Web or their PC and provides easy access to world-leading MSN services. The final version of the MSN Search Toolbar includes free enhancements for Windows® 2000 and Windows XP customers, providing a dramatically upgraded desktop search experience. These new innovations for Windows customers will make it easier than ever to find and retrieve documents, e-mail, images, video and more on their Windows-based personal computers.

By offering the most integrated desktop search capabilities for Windows, now people can search their PC as fast as they can search the Web," said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president for the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft. "The new MSN Search Toolbar makes it easy for customers to find precisely what they're looking for, no matter where it resides."

The MSN Search Toolbar, available for free download today at http://desktop.msn.com, enables people to conveniently search their desktops from within familiar applications they use every day - including Microsoft Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office Outlook® - combining the one-step ease of a Web search with the richness and power of the PC environment.

Innovations in Windows Desktop Search Make Searching the PC Faster and Easier.
By dramatically upgrading desktop search capabilities in the Windows operating system, Microsoft is providing Windows customers with powerful new searching enhancements that allow them to quickly search through mountains of digital data and find precisely what they're looking for. Windows Desktop Search includes the following features:

• Fast, precise retrieval of desktop files. Using one tool, people can search more than 200 file types on their PC including Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail files; Outlook Contacts or Calendar files; multimedia files; Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 files; MP3, GIF and JPEG files; Adobe or .PDF files; and more. Searching is also efficient with search-as-you-type functionality. People can even search e-mail attachments.
• One-step searches and familiar interfaces. People can save valuable time and avoid hassle by initiating searches from Internet Explorer, Outlook or the Windows desktop - wherever they are working on their PC. Integration with Outlook and Office makes searching a familiar, convenient experience.
• Useful, actionable results. People can accomplish more with useful and informative search results due to powerful filtering and sorting capabilities. A preview pane provides helpful summaries for each search result, allowing people to preview the contents of their PC directly from the desktop search view and drag and drop files into other applications, which lets them quickly find and act on the items they need. People can open files in their associated application directly from desktop search results, as well as quickly initiate actions such as managing, sharing, deleting or playing files.
• Privacy protection. People can enjoy a better-protected and more-private desktop searching experience. The MSN Search Toolbar is built on the current Windows security and privacy model, which is designed to respect the privacy of multiple users on a single PC by utilizing the Windows authentication and user account management infrastructure.
• Customization. People have the ability to select what information gets indexed and the types of files that are searched, including Outlook folders. Easy setup tools such as a First Run Wizard make it simple to customize Windows Desktop Search. People also can take advantage of the plug-in architecture and download third-party ifilters from http://addins.msn.com to extend the variety of file types that can be indexed and searched.

Smarter Browsing With MSN Search Toolbar
The MSN Search Toolbar eliminates the hassles of browsing the Web and provides people with the tools to find what they need fast. The MSN Search Toolbar offers time-saving tools including Pop-up Blocker, which helps prevent pop-up windows from appearing; Form Fill, which enables people to fill out online forms with one click; and a highlighting feature that color-codes search keywords on a results page and helps people locate the information they want via thumbnail windows. To further improve people's browsing and searching experience, in the coming months MSN will introduce an integrated Tabbed Browsing feature, giving one-click access to people's favorite sites in the same window, streamlining everyday activities and enabling people to save commonly visited sites into automatic "routines" that can be opened simultaneously.

Easy Access to MSN Services
The MSN Search Toolbar also gives people one-click access to and rich interaction with MSN services, including MSN Messenger, the No. 1 most-used free instant messaging service in the world; MSN Hotmail®, the world's largest Web-based e-mail service; new MSN Search; and MSN Spaces, enabling people to conveniently initiate common communication tasks right from the toolbar.
The MSN Search Toolbar is available now in English in the United States. Global availability is planned for later this year.

Microsoft to Offer Corporate Desktop Search Solution
In response to feedback from corporate customers looking for desktop searching capabilities designed for their needs, Microsoft is developing a desktop search offering, built on Windows Desktop Search, for the corporate environment. Scheduled to be available in beta form by the end of the calendar year, the offering will enable corporations to empower employees with fast, powerful searching capabilities across their PC, with plentiful customization options.

M.P