I thought I was going to bed, but I just can’t resist checking on my feed subscriptions before I lay down. It’s almost 3 am out on the East coast, despite the time stamp at the bottom (I thought it best to keep it on Pacific time, as I’m easily confused, lol!)
Anyway.
Good thing I stayed up, so I can be the 2nd or 3rd person to tell you that Windows Live Search has debuted. And to burst your bubble if you were expecting much more than a prettier face on Live.com.
I first read about the unveiling at Search Engine Watch’s Blog, where I saw a blog post by Chris Sherman about how the update had just been launched. It pointed to a longer article at Search Engine Watch that detailed the … details. *ahem*
Windows Live Search complements MSN search, and ultimately both services will be powered by the same underlying technology, according to Adam Sohn, Microsoft’s Director of Global Sales & Marketing PR. While the Windows Live site will focus primarily on productivity, the MSN brand will continue to evolve as a media and content destination.
I didn’t get a chance to use Windows Live Search or see a demonstration of it prior to launch, but I was able to review screenshots of the service. The differences between Windows Live Search and MSN search appear to be largely cosmetic with the introduction of this beta, with the addition of some additional user interface controls and a few other features.
I agree that the changes were mostly cosmetic, though the extra few features to the interface were fun… surprise, surprise, I had problems using the site with Mozilla Firefox. There’s no way I’m launching a separate browser session in Internet Explorer Beta to test how they work there, even though IE7 is growing on me. I’ll talk about why in my super-professional “me likey/me no likey” section below.
Me Likey
- Whose bright idea was it to have a scroller within the page so I could view more results? So simple, so smart. I love it.
- Switching from the web results to news to local, then feeds (are you feeling me yet, Google? Yahoo? are we on the “same page”?) was all that and a bag of chips. Loaded super-quick for me.
- Feeds. Dude. Feeds. On a major search engine, right there on another tab. And like before I can add them to my Live.com page and keep trucking. I don’t remember if the player in the window for podcasts was there before, but I’m sure digging it now.
- Also loving the slider in the upper right corner that lets me decide whether I want to know a long description of the site I’m going to or the short and sweet version for web results
Me No Likey
- I hate. Despise. Detest. Things that don’t work right in Firefox. I’m AIN’T changing my default browser Microsoft. (That’s right. I said “I’m AIN’T”.) Not unless you come up with some really fantastical stuff that will also port over all my adjustments, tweaks and add-ons. Firefox isn’t perfect but I’m in love.
I know it Seems like good business sense to try and make people use your browser if they want to use your search engine. Trust me when I say it just means I’m not going to use your site. If I have to build sites that work in Firefox and IE, so do you.
And yeah, it probably seems like I’m being extra hard on poor Billion-dollar Microsoft. Boo-hoo. But I’m especially mad because it seems like it’s working fine at first, but then when you want to switch tabs from right to left for the same search, you run into issues. Clean it up, Microsoft. I love you but that has to go.
- Feeds should be right next to the news, especially since it seems like the local tab is part of the problem between switching tabs from right to left. Left to right works fine, though, but the first right to left problem I had seemed to start a cascading issue.
- While it is SO sexy that I can preview a feed in plain text using Windows Live on the feeds tab, when I click the link to add this feed to live.com, it should happen in the background, or at least have an option for it if I want to keep searching for more feeds.
- Also, that option for “Make Live.com yours” could be a little clearer. It says to uncheck a box if I don’t want something, but I don’t realize right away that you’re talking about the check boxes in the upper right corner on that green background. I automatically start attempting to take out the options just below the notice. I figured it out after a second, but when I was a newbie you’d have scared me away.
- I don’t want a friggin Passport account, okay? Either make it less of a hassle to sign up (and to retrieve my password, because I could have used the one I had during the 1700s) or stop asking me to get one.
It’s not personal, I just find it useless to have that, and my Yahoo account and my Google account. My Yahoo and Google accounts are also pains, but sign-up is faster and I get free, useful stuff.
Okay. Deep breaths. I’m done. Overall, the Windows Live Search Update isn’t horrible, but it’s not enough to make me change my homepage or anything either.
Tags: free traffic :: website promotion :: windows live search :: MSN search
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