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Microsoft Notebook MSN search engine has foot in door
13 December 2004A seemingly innocuous box on the screen inside the latest MSN instant-messaging program provides a clue to Microsoft's broader strategy in the search business.
The rectangular box, embedded in a preview version of the company's MSN Messenger 7.0, is a search field. Users will be able to launch Internet searches directly from that field, automatically opening a Web browser to display the relevant results on an Internet search site.
And as you've probably guessed, the search site it uses is not Google.
The feature sends people to Microsoft's MSN Search service. In the process, it demonstrates what promises to be one of the Redmond company's main advantages as it tries to come from behind in the search business -- its ready access to hundreds of millions of people already using its various types of computer software.
"That's their best weapon," said Gary Stein, a Jupiter Research senior analyst.
Google, of course, has its own set of weapons, including its dominant position in the search business, widespread brand recognition and a deeply devoted user base. In addition, the Internet search king has already released tools that place Google search fields on the Windows desktop and inside the frame of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
But Microsoft's ownership of such programs as Windows and the Office productivity suite could help the company as it tries to drive new traffic to MSN Search and gain ground on Google and Yahoo! while fending off a field of smaller rivals.
"Microsoft has a lot of those potential interface locations under its control," Stein said, explaining that convenience is one factor that draws people to a particular search engine. "If there's a box and it says, 'search here,' that's pretty compelling."
MSN Messenger alone boasts 145 million users around the world. But the addition of the search box to the instant-messaging program looks to be only the start.
Although Microsoft hasn't revealed details of its broader plans, there are widespread indications the company will seek to boost its search-engine traffic by making MSN Search boxes available on the computer desktop and inside more of its programs.
It started in July, when Microsoft acquired Lookout, an add-on tool for Microsoft Outlook that places a search field inside the program for searching the text of e-mails, contacts and appointments.
Then, last month, technology Web site Neowin posted leaked screenshots depicting what it called an upcoming program dubbed the "MSN Toolbar Suite." The program would let users put MSN Search boxes inside Outlook, within the Windows Explorer file-management program, and next to the taskbar that's typically positioned along the bottom of the screen in PCs running the Windows operating system.
Source: CRM Knowledge Base
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