Changes ahead for MSN Live Search

Beginning this week, and for the next month or so, Microsoft is rolling out changes to the way Live Search makes queries and how results are displayed, in a bid to snatch some of Google’s share of the search market.

by Helen Leggatt

Microsoft has some catching up to do in the U.S. search market. Its share fell last month to 11.3 percent, down from 12.3 percent in July. During the same period, Google’s market share increased slightly to 56.5 percent from 55.2 percent.

The ongoing changes will see MSN Live Search results being displayed in a web page format. Various types of search such as business, product or celebrity orientated subjects may return "instant answers" and/or additional, relevant information such as prices, images, video, user review snippets and ratings will also be displayed.

By improving the engagement of existing Microsoft Live Search site users they hope to increase usage, said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Search and Advertising Platform Group.

Search results are increasingly moving away from lists of links and updates. Google recently added additional photos, videos and even book excerpts while Ask.com completely transformed into Ask3D.