Tech Shout!

Microsoft, on Wednesday unveiled the enhanced Live.com homepage complete with a beta version of Windows Live Search, MSN Search’s successor. Microsoft expects to keep its new site in keen competition with Google, the dominating search engine of present day.

Windows Live Search makes use of advanced Web features to produce a vibrant search experience. For instance, users can preview search results on the site, adjust a slider bar to give out more information on a result, and a “smart scroll” feature to display results without moving from page to page.

Microsoft’s new search technology also searches more Web content, including blogs, RSS feeds and e-mails. The Redmond company also revealed its new image search that features endless scrolling, thumbnail-image-sizing customisation, filmstrip view and the capacity to see the full image without leaving the results page.

Windows Live Search is additionally linked up with MSN Shopping and MSN Spaces to offer incorporated search results from those MSN properties. Other Windows Live services, such as Messenger and Mail, will comprise of the same built-in search capabilities.

According to Microsoft, customisation plays a crucial role in the new search engine. A feature called “Search Macros” allows users to save and share specific queries and search scopes. For instance, a search could be limited to only the users’ chosen and favourite Web sites rather than the entire Internet.

A handful of Macros are currently available on Windows Live Search, and Microsoft plans to release a beta tool in the near future to allow foundation of new Macros.

Live.com itself has also been supported with new themes, support for multiple pages based on interest, along with new and updated Gadgets. Gadgets are mini-applications that can run either in the Windows Vista Sidebar or on Live.com directly.

In its blog, the Live.com team wrote, “We have done a tremendous amount on our infrastructure; live.com was built on our start.com incubation infrastructure. With this launch we’ve deployed a scaleable, geofederatable, higher performance backend which we’re looking forward to growing in to.”