Microsoft founder Bill Gates said two weeks ago at a conference in Davos, Switzerland, that Google "kicked our butts" in search but that the software giant is working to remedy that with new search technology for next year.
Through its coming Longhorn operating system, Microsoft plans to integrate Web search into the desktop. MSN also has started testing new formulas for delivering search results and related text ads through its test site.
Customer personalisation also is a top priority for the company. Microsoft is testing technology that lets people search from a toolbar on the browser, detects their news preferences, and delivers relevant links automatically. It also updated its MyMSN news pages recently, with features to drag and drop preferred content onto the page.
Media executives postulate that Yahoo's and MSN's relationship to visitors and advertisers will help their position against Google.
"People say in [Silicon Valley], 'why would you use anything else but Google?' But Yahoo and MSN can be powerful competitors," said David Smith, president of Internet marketing company MediaSmith.
Talkback
MSN ought to turn their attention to the Microsoft knowledge base.
Why do i have to go to Google, do a search, find a KB result then go back in?
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