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Last week, Microsoft enhanced its Windows Live [2] (live.com) by adding a new Search service (Windows Live Search). Just look at the top of the page. If it works well, that new service could even replace MSN Search in a few months.

It's not a secret that MSN is far behind Google in the Search Engines market. So, Microsoft has decided to fight back. Only time will tell if they'll succeed...

Last november, Microsoft launched Windows Live [3], a service with some interesting "web2.0" ideas. The users can customize that webpage, adding their own rss feeds, local weather informations and the like. Users can move around those blocks of informations via drag and drop too. Nicely done. By the way, Microsoft has learn a few lessons : it only worked on recent IE versions, but now works quite well on Firefox [4] (even under Linux [5]).

They took one step ahead last week. The new Windows Live Search service apparently has many if not all the features of MSN Search [6]. And even a few more. By example, you can choose the detail level without reloading the results page. And you can scroll down the results page, without reloading again. Yes, it's AJAX behind the scene ("web 2.0" is the current buzzword for this).

First, in the past month, MSN choosed to better respect standards by using xhtml and css for the rendering of the msn Search result pages (instead of the many heavy-ugly-badly-used nested html tables). Good move : pages are lighter, loaded faster, code is more manageable and output more customisable through CSS [7]. Clients are happy, and bandwidth is saved.

The next step was to use AJAX technologies, to make it more like a desktop application. This use of "cutting-edge" technologies implies some risks. Only (very) recent browsers support it, and there are some differences in the way Ajax is supported by the different browsers. Another annoyance implied by ajax applications is that it breaks the "Back" button, by definition (asynchronous requests made by the browser on the same page). A solid ajax web application should degrade gracefully on older browsers (even those without javascript support). This is really hard to use it the right way, as Google did for GMail by example.

This is what Microsoft tries to do with Windows Live Search. At first sight, the current results look great. Check it yourself with a random search term, like this one: Windows Live Search: "Google" [8].

Refs 

• ComputerWorld [9]: Microsoft to release enhanced search-engine beta [10]
  
• PCMag [11]: Microsoft Revs Up New Search Engine [12]
  
• BusinessWeek [13]: Memo Outlines Microsoft's Plans [14]
  
• Live.com [15] : Windows Live [16]
• MSN [17]: MSN Search [18]
• BusinessWeek [19]: Why Microsoft Is Going "Live" [20]
• OreillyNet [21]: What Is Web 2.0 [22]
  
• Web2Con [23]: Web 2.0 Conference [24]
  
• Wikipedia [25]: AJAX : Asynchronous JavaScript And XML [26]