MSN BETA LAUNCHED (NEW UPDATES Nov 16)

[yowow]

Msn has Launced the new beta search engine. Some of my website are ranking top on new search engine. Also bunch of spam website which show up on yahoo and google are not showing up on new msn. But only time would tell us whether new search engine is better than yahoo or google.
http://beta.search.msn.com/
Updates: My rank is falling daily :(
i think now msn beta is incorporating all the result of old search engine. Most of the website rank on top on old search engine are now on top position on new beta search engine. :( my website rank is sliding day by day.
Infact most of the result are reflecting yahoo search engine results but minus spam.

[Sanjo]

Search builder is a pretty cool tool, if other search engines adopt this, and surfers actually use it, this will throw a kink into SEO.

Also, found the URL for their site submit:
http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

[greeneagle]

I am impressed! - They seem to have worked out some serious bugs!

Ken

[BStone]

They are very responsive to feedback. I sent feedback about my site not being listed and a few hours later the bot deep scanned my site and it was listed the next day. Very impressive.

[RikR]

Nice!

I searched "two way radio" my web site was second in the results!

[cryptblade]

Yo - Peep this (from MSN search's Site Owner Help section)

About site ranking
MSN Search site ranking is completely automated. The MSN Search ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as page contents, the number and quality of sites that link to your pages, and the relevance of your site’s content to keywords. The algorithm is complex and never human-mediated. You cannot pay to boost your site’s relevance ranking; however, we do offer advertising options for site owners.

Each time the index is updated, you may notice a shift in your site’s ranking. As new sites are added and some sites become obsolete, previous relevance rankings are revised.

Although you cannot directly change your site’s ranking, you can optimize its design and technical implementation to enable appropriate ranking by most search engines.

Seems pretty clear, concise. I would like to hold them to it. And I like that they encourage optimized design, etc. They may actually be receptive to SEO feedback and make search better, easier, more relevant.. I dont know. But it seems quite encouraging. i respect that.

[incrediblehelp]

Can anyone tell me what this was?

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/

Before they did a redirect on it, I was getting totally different results from the one that is live now.

[globalhostinggroup]

Well this is a good step forward now if only they would add some of my suggestions

[greeneagle]

Do they have a toolbar that we can download with user appropriated functions that flags MSNBot to spyder searched Sites yet?

Ken

[OneDerBar]

Wow...I must say, I'm much more pleased with my results on MSN search beta than on the others. I should be because it just spidered my site today and I have made significant changes.

[Sanjo]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Can anyone tell me what this was?

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/

Before they did a redirect on it, I was getting totally different results from the one that is live now.

Bet that was a preview for all the tech guys/gals at MSN to test it out.

[wednesday]

Interesting. I got my site some positions up for secondary keywords. And some positions down for primary. And I see different sites in top10s. Anyway it's good to have webmasters friendly search angine. Yet. :)

[incrediblehelp]

My main concern is that they had two DIFFERENT betas for us to look at. I just found it weird.

Anyways I am enjoying my results on this new beta MSN as well. I am just hoping that it goes live soon. When I heard they released a new search engine Thursday (on NPR, newletters, message boards I just thought they were going live on MSN.com!!!!

[globalhostinggroup]

MSN search crashed and was unavailable for some time.

The image search I feel if far superior to Googles image results.

Still waiting on my suggestions…

[jvmills]

Does anyone have a definitive answer as to when the beta version goes live? I hear end of this year, middle of next year depending on which thread I read.

BTW I reckon url and site title are a lot more important to this engine's algorithm.

[globalhostinggroup]

http://beta.search.msn.com/
the beta is live it is up right now.
When will it leave beta I predict on the next version of Microsoft ** when it is integrated into the OS.

[jamie_scott]

Does anyone know the name of the bot being used by the new MS search? I've had visits from MSNBot but I think thats the standard msn bot?

Ah just checked another one of my sites and have been visited by "MSIECrawler" is that it?

[globalhostinggroup]

Well I notice an abundant number of Unknown robot (identified by 'crawl') on my site this month.

[dviney]

I have to say, I am very impressed with what MSN have achieved with this new search engine.

Less old rubbish

Many other SEs contain some webpages that haven't changed since the birth of the internet. MSN's results have a freshness about them which is invigourating (like a freshly painted house).

Less spam

Google is sort of like a playground covered in graffiti (where us SEO freeks - ethical or otherwise) are the hooligans! We have spent so much time vandalising Google's results that they are now ruined for everyone. If MSN does begin to gain ground, the vandals will move in with their spraycans... but I guess until then it's a better place to hang out and play.

Better images & some new features

Has anyone tried the Search Builder functionality? Very cool indeed. Try playing with the site popularity slider to see whether your site has a good MSN pagerank or type this direct into the search bar:

Your Keywords {popl=100} {mtch=0} {frsh=0}

Let's hear it for old Bill! For once he has got the hang of the internet and - most importantly - it's true spirit! Not about profits but about finding information - and fast.

[priceshark]

I love the new MSN search engine, i think its way better than google, anyone knows when they will use it on msn.com?

[globalhostinggroup]

if you are a fan don’t forget to switch your home page.. that start up traffic wins major points.

[Maximilian]

Originally Posted by priceshark

I love the new MSN search engine, i think its way better than google, anyone knows when they will use it on msn.com?

Greetings - priceshark!

CNN reported that their MSN sources slated it for late December of this year - kind'a an early holiday gift, of sorts, fom Billy G.

Sincerely,
Max

[greeneagle]

Personally, I like being able to grab news on different topics from my homepage without having to bring up an individual desktop RSS reader.

Maybe they will just slap a little meat on the bones when emerging out of Beta - Maybe there will even be an option to make it your homepage when they clear a new toolbar/searchbar integration into IE... I would even be tempted to change or run paralell if the toolbar search function flagged the MSNBot to visit each Site queried. It would be a done deal (homepage) if the "meat was on the bones" instead of just a skeletal search page. It's not difficult to incorporate customization and add many choices such as color scheme, presentation, choice in news topics etc...

Then they can buy out Alexa's tracking technology and dress it up in kevlar "Sunday go to Meeting" clothing. The sheer volume would definitely clean up the Alexa inaccuracy issues with a a few tweaks, like redundant search filter, eliminating the same URL inquiry from the same IP address in certain time frames.

Ken

[dviney]

Completely agree with you Greeneagle. I have always liked Alexa rankings (skewed though they are by the uneven pattern of Alexa takeup generally and the dominance of Korean users in particular). I guess Amazon might be reluctant to part with it though...

The links to related sites on Alexa is also a useful function worth copying (for example when you are searching for holidays) and the use of user site reviews (once mainstream) would be a