Microsoft raises the bar in search
A new era for search signaled with a richer, intuitive experience
London – UK – 30 April 2008 - Microsoft today marks a milestone in search innovation by introducing a broad range of new services and features to Live Search in the UK (www.live.com) underlining its stated commitment to improving the user experience.
The new generation of Live Search represents a dramatic improvement on the current search experience to deliver a more intuitive and responsive user interface making it even easier for people to find what they want from the web quickly and easily. This new user-defined environment is made possible thanks to improved core search infrastructure - expanded content, new local and mapping experiences and integrated location-based services via mobile devices.
“With today’s new version of Live Search, we’re starting to redefine the search experience for our 10million users in the UK. We are building a product that will make every search as intuitive and rewarding as possible,” commented Cynthia Crossley, UK Director of Search for Microsoft. “The days of clicking back and forth between pages of results until you stumble upon the right answer are over. The improved Live Search product marries ease of use with a much improved ‘back end’ infrastructure meaning that we’re able to deliver more insightful, , richer search results as well as improved local relevance through Multimap and Mobile Live Search.”
The new version of Live Search builds on the improvements in core relevance and user experience made last year. Live Search UK boasts 10million Unique Users per Month (comScore, March 2008). Users will benefit from a more intuitive interface that helps them refine their searches quickly without needing to reenter new keywords. Other specific improvements include:
| • | Increased image index - means searching for images is now faster with Live Search. Images are organised into one page so you don't have to keep on clicking "next page" to see more. Already available in beta, Live Search is expanding its Video search offer to let you browse and share videos from across the web. |
| • | A new consumer mapping experience, Multimap from Live Search the UK’s popular mapping site. Live Search now offers consumers an improved local search experience with great new features such as more familiar map styles, new Aerial and Bird’s eye imagery from Virtual Earth, ability to personalise maps with points of interest or other useful information and book hotels directly from map views. These features will be directly accessible through both Live Search and MSN. |
| • | New location based mobile search. The ‘Find My Location’ feature available in the Mobile Live Search product will identify a user’s location and find the nearest local restaurants or cinemas as well as directions on how to get there. |
| • | Expansion of specialized content areas - Celebrities & Books: Celebrity xRank is a new entertainment experience within Live Search that charts celebrities and ‘news-makers’ by the total number of daily web searches they receive. Live Search Books provides free access to out-of-copyright content to all internet users and allows people to search online to find answers from authoritative and trusted books |
| • | Substantial improvement in search tools. In addition to further developments in index size, query intent and name queries, the new Live Search makes it easier to refine or improve your search by offering a set of refinement options. A more deeply integrated Instant Answers platform will also provide specific answers to queries about specific areas such as weather, celebrities, stocks or quick facts from Encarta. |
Crossley continued, “It’s still early days in the search game and we’re always listening to the feedback of Live Search users as we continue to invest and innovate our product to meet their needs. Today’s release is a further sign of how important search is to our future business as we aim to deliver the most innovative, intuitive, end to end search experience that spans web, local, mobile and mapping services helping customers to find what they need, when they need it, on any device.”
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.
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Contact information
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