Microsoft Officially Launches MSN Search

[RadarCat]

By the way.. I checked out your site just because that's what we do..

There is an huge error at the top.

IMG SRC="http://service.bfast.com/bfast/serve?bfmid=25426813&siteid=41125426&bfpage=epod_1 43" BORDER="0" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1" NOSAVE >

Just thought you might wanna know.

See ya!

To: SnerdeyWebs

Thanks for letting me know about the error. My home page was perfect earlier today.

For some reason <s have been disapearing from my code the past two days. I have no idea what is causing it.

[lucks]

Hi All,

Does anyone know what we've to do to optimize our websites for MSN?

Your findings will be helpful!

Thanks in Advance
Lucks...

[espectations]

The webmaster tips page is still to be found in the BETA site:
http://beta.search.msn.co.za/docs/si...iteIndexed.htm

I checked it out when the beta site was launched.

Here is an interesting thing - MSNbot - referred to in the Webmaster tips - maybe 'ol Bill did not speak his marketing people before he made his speach.

I tend to agree with the MSN comments - talk about MSN and you think instant messenger not search engine.

I was wondering if their marketing people think about these things.

To me search engines are about relevancy......it is early days and I believe there are only something like 4 million pages or something in their database at this stage whereas Google has 6 million in theirs (I stand under correction - anybody have the right figures?).

People will use whatever they are comfortable with and what gives them the best results. I sometimes use all three when I search for something.....

From my own stats and reports I see people are starting to use more descriptive search terms for example:
SMS from pc South Africa vs just SMS

It would be interesting to see what happens in the coming months

[espectations]

PS - their rules and guidelines are here http://beta.search.msn.co.za/docs/si...mizingSite.htm

Three things I found interesting was the validation of html, flat sitemap structure and static vs dynamic URL's.....

[StephenR.]

God bless the new MSN search! My placement is very good in MSN for my most important keywords...one of which puts me in at #1 out of 17M.

[ctabuk]

I think that if Bill Gates has decided to take on Google and Yahoo he will do just that. I agree about the name, and I loved the excellent point about Google for teenagers. MSN is being made the automatic browser page for many many new Broadband customers in the UK, in my humble opnion within a year 50% of UK searches will be with Bill.

[Artyom]

I don't believe there is a sense to make any comments about Brand new MSN Search now, let's see what traffic and...sales/sign ups/ subscriptions....etc.will come at February. Sure I understand that very often it's impossible to say what gave you a sale, but if you launch polls and 'talk' to your customers you Will get an answer on question 'if MSN gave me any results or not'

[netuser00]

MSN may produce better relevant ranking. But are people going to use it? More 80% of the search engine referral to my site has been from Google. I do pay for Google AdWord, but they show up on MSN search too. What is important to me is the search engine that most people use to get to my site. So far Google wins hands down.

[SnerdeyWebs]

Google is also the winner when it comes to inbound traffic for our site. I'm sure people will flock to MSN once they get all the ad's running.

Google is 86% now.. I wonder how much MSN will be within a couple of weeks or so.

Yeah, it also pretty cool that the Ad Sence is showing on both!.. get ready to increase your daily allowance.. your going to need to I'm sure of it!

[jackson992]

MSN is leading on all my sites. Most sites it is around 53%. This tells you how sucky Google has been of late.