FEBRUARY 2005 - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted Microsoft made a mistake in not developing its own search technology in the early years of Google. Now in a rapid movement to catch up with Google and Yahoo, the new MSN Search intends to dominate the market as this new Microsoft spidering technology successfully completes the beta test phase.
The MSN Search technology took two years for Microsoft to develop. Before the MSN beta launch, all search results were borrowed from Yahoo search results. During the Beta phase many SEO analysts waited breathlessly for the MSN Beta Site to become more logical in its search results. Icon Interactive , a Wisconsin-based Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company noted inconsistencies and contradictions in the early MSN Search?s spidering algorithms when compared to Google?s page rank logic.
Russell Wright, a search analyst for Icon Interactive said,?The early MSN search results seemed to put more weight on the quantity and architecture of inbound links, and not at all on unique site content."
He said sites that were ranked high on Google for good content but had mediocre inbound links were snubbed completely by the beta MSN search.
"Once the higher executives at Microsoft were sold on developing a proprietary Search Engine technology, they decided to think big," Wright said. " Microsoft said they 'own' the search platform because they've built it and that Microsoft will rapidly become the search technology leader?.
Wright, like many search analysts, said its unlikely that MSN will take the search engine industry by storm. When Yahoo replaced all the Google Search results with its own technology, Wright said it had little impact on its market share. Similarly, Microsoft has been unwilling to pinpoint when the complete switchover from borrowed Yahoo search results will be.
"The more important search behaviors to watch for will be relevancy of search," Wright said. "So far, the MSN search results seem highly relevant and competitive. "
Online statistics show, according to comscore Networks Inc, that Google owns a 34.4 search market share, Yahoo claims 31.8 while MSN holds a 16.5 of the search market.
