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**Kristijntje** · 09-27-2007, 04:20 PM,

Quote:This week were excited to launch a major update to Live Search thats relevant, faster and easier to use. Hundreds of us rolled up our sleeves and dug deep. We pored over your feedback, analyzed the data and talked to thousands of users. How major is this? Its our biggest update since our debut in January 2005.

Here are just some of the areas we focused on:

* Relevance, relevance, relevance. Weve quadrupled the size of our index, which means we can return the right results for your searches. Improvements like enhanced ranking algorithms, auto-spell correction and better stop word handling help us return the best results.
* Speed. Pages load much faster than before.
* Streamlined look and feel. We focused on the end-to-end experience from the homepage throughout the site. For example, search results are now easier to read thanks to work on typography, contrast, colors and spacing.
* More high-interest content. You asked us for more in Entertainment, Shopping, Health, Local and Video search and were happy to deliver it...

full announcement: http://livesearch.spaces.live.com/blog/c...1359.entry

Fact sheet:

Quote:Updated Search Features

Live Search Video, powered by a new in-house video search technology, allows users to search for and browse online video content, and watch high-quality videos from the Web. With a new smart motion preview feature, consumers can now preview video within the search results by rolling over the thumbnail of the video.

Live Search Local allows consumers to search local business listings, helping them make more informed decisions with rich business details and reviews, all within Live Search.

Live Search Image has increased the image index and changed its user interface. With this increase, consumers are now able to search across millions of images and receive precise results with smart scroll, thumbnail image-sizing customization, filmstrip view and the ability to see the full image without leaving the results page.

Live Search Products helps consumers easily find and discover products, reviews, guides, prices and other relevant information all within the Live Search interface, giving them confidence in their buying decisions. User reviews at a glance, powered by our new Opinion Index technology, summarizes the sentiment of the Web about a product, which can save consumers both the time and hassle of combing through multiple Web sites for this information.

Live Search Health helps consumers refine health searches quickly using related medical concepts to get relevant health information from a broad spectrum of perspectives, and helps them navigate complex topics with inline article results from experts like the Mayo Clinic all on a single page.

Live Search Entertainment helps consumers stay informed of the latest entertainment news with inline celebrity answers accompanied by images, video, facts and buzz. In addition, Live Searchs new xRank feature allows consumers to find out how their favorite celebrities rank in regard to total Web searches via a daily updated ranking.

Live Search Instant Answers provides answers to questions at the top of the algorithmic results, so consumers spend less time searching for the information they need. Several new and updated Instant Answer features include Live Search traffic, weather, maps, entertainment, news, product, stocks and health.

Live Search Maps updates in the coming months will include a new user interface, better ways to map local business listings, and quicker, more accurate directions with better printing features.

Additional Search Features

Live Search Scopes allow people to see search results from Web pages, local maps and directions, images, videos, and more without the need to re-enter the same query each time or to leave the page.

Live Search Toolbar provides access to the Live Search platform from any Web page.

Live Search Academic allows consumers to search through academic information and journals, including computer science, engineering and physics journals.

Live Search Books is advancing the way people search online by digitizing and indexing information from printed material from around the world, representing another step forward in Microsofts efforts to precisely answer peoples questions with trusted content from the best possible sources.

Live Search QnA brings a community of real people into the search experience that can help answer a consumers toughest questions. Live Search QnA enables consumers to ask and answer questions to further the social networking experience at Live.com.

Live Search Macros is a powerful tool that allows consumers to create their own custom search engines or use customizations created by others who share their interests to make their searches more relevant.

fact sheet: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsr...rchFS.mspx

press release: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press...inePR.mspx