MSN to launch algorithmic SE today

#1

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...752_msn10.html

#2

"David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_ (AT) voila (DOT) fr> wrote

Quote:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...86752_msn10.ht

ml

yay and we're #1 for all our terms

mark

#3

mark | r wrote:

Quote:

"David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_ (AT) voila (DOT) fr> wrote in message
news:4191dd6e$0$6877$79c14f64 (AT) nan-newsreader-07 (DOT) noos.net...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...86752_msn10.ht
ml

yay and we're #1 for all our terms

mark

according to /. it is not the algorithmic SE that is being launched but

just a face lift... more Microsoft FUD

Here is the algorithmic search engine:

http://techpreview.search.msn.com/

It needs some work for relevance, I think Google is still better in that
regard.

#4

ok here it is:

http://beta.search.msn.com/

It is like someone has ripped off Google and mixed the results with
sponsored links and adverts and added a load of irrelevant results. In
fact it is almost like the bad old Microsoft search interface before
they cleaned it up.

#5

"David Off" <david.off_dumpthisbit_ (AT) voila (DOT) fr> wrote

Quote:

ok here it is:

http://beta.search.msn.com/

It is like someone has ripped off Google and mixed the results with
sponsored links and adverts and added a load of irrelevant results. In
fact it is almost like the bad old Microsoft search interface before they
cleaned it up.

Yes, and the results are, well, of mixed quality.

Given Microsoft/IE dominance, this SE will be a factor that needs to be taken into
account. It would behoove all of us in the NG to begin deciphering how these
rankings are derived. Results are significantly different than either G or
Y in my areas.

I'm sitting here scratching my head over what I see. For instance, a search
for "oregon alpaca farms" returns this -
http://www.alpaca-farms-breeders.com/contact.htm - which does not show the
word "oregon" anywhere in it. Well, almost. Look at the source and
"Oregon" appears in the select list in the form for the page.

So, it does not appear to reflect weighting on any of the common aspects of
a web page - keyword density, bold, italic, headers, title, description,
keywords, etc. Kind of bizarre, I would say.

At least it is still in beta...

John Merrell
Gateway Farm Alpacas
htttp://www.gateway-alpacas.com

#6

Gateway Farm wrote:

Quote:

I'm sitting here scratching my head over what I see. For instance, a search
for "oregon alpaca farms" returns this -
http://www.alpaca-farms-breeders.com/contact.htm - which does not show the
word "oregon" anywhere in it.

Not in the visual contents but the word occurs in the drop down list of
states. This to me, is a bug in the way MSN search is indexing this page.

John is right, let's have some more analysis of this search engine place.

I think the MSN Beta is heavily influenced by domain name, URL and TITLE
elements. After that I suspect there is some algo like Hilltop that
ranks the results. The more I am using it today the more I think the
results are poor.

#7

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 22:36:34 +0100, David Off
<david.off_dumpthisbit_ (AT) voila (DOT) fr> wrote:

Quote:

I think the MSN Beta is heavily influenced by domain name, URL and TITLE
elements.

I thought that at first but changed my mind while playing aorund with
some phrases where URL [domain name or file name wise - hyphenated or
not] or TITLE didn't seem to play a role [in my opinion].

For example:
http://beta.search.msn.com/results.a...t=10&FORM=PDRE
6 and 8th spot sites only mention the phrase in the body of the page.

11 through 14, 17 and 19 on Page 2 cannot take credit for URL [domain
name wise or file name wise] and/or TITLE helping them out either.

But a mixed bag, I agree.On the other hand don't a number of the page 1 and 2 results look like FP
created/template pages?

As the Swedish Chef would say, if he used FP:


Carol

#8

"Gateway Farm" <johnwmerrell (AT) earthlink (DOT) net> wrote

[snip]

Quote:

I'm sitting here scratching my head over what I see. For instance, a
search for "oregon alpaca farms" returns this -
http://www.alpaca-farms-breeders.com/contact.htm - which does not show the
word "oregon" anywhere in it. Well, almost. Look at the source and
"Oregon" appears in the select list in the form for the page.

So, it does not appear to reflect weighting on any of the common aspects
of a web page - keyword density, bold, italic, headers, title,
description, keywords, etc. Kind of bizarre, I would say.

Not to mention keywords in anchor text for links. They appear to have
"contact us" as the keywords of choice for links pointing to that page!

MM

#9

"C.W." <from_you (AT) nomail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 22:36:34 +0100, David Off

<snip>

Quote:

But a mixed bag, I agree.On the other hand don't a number of the page 1 and 2 results look like FP
created/template pages?</span

I kind of noticed this also. I noticed it in the preview of it. :-) I was
thinking how in the heck did these sites get to #1. Some of the 1st place
listings have FP in the tags. If that is the case I will have to put the FP
back on my pages and let the essence of the FP take over. :-)

Quote:

As the Swedish Chef would say, if he used FP:
font><font

Carol

Stacey

#10

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 23:25:20 GMT, "MM" <ngreader (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

"Gateway Farm" <johnwmerrell (AT) earthlink (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:10p794lqucj4749 (AT) corp (DOT) supernews.com...
[snip]

I'm sitting here scratching my head over what I see. For instance, a
search for "oregon alpaca farms" returns this -
http://www.alpaca-farms-breeders.com/contact.htm - which does not show the
word "oregon" anywhere in it. Well, almost. Look at the source and
"Oregon" appears in the select list in the form for the page.

So, it does not appear to reflect weighting on any of the common aspects
of a web page - keyword density, bold, italic, headers, title,
description, keywords, etc. Kind of bizarre, I would say.

Not to mention keywords in anchor text for links. They appear to have
"contact us" as the keywords of choice for links pointing to that page!

MM

Hence the expression; beta.

BB

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