MSN Beta has just become MSN Search going live and its not even Saturday night. Results from MSN Beta have been filtering over to MSN Search since January 16, 2005 and now it is official. The search engine wars heat up again as MSN Search is no longer dependent upon the Inktomi database for its results.
One of the exciting aspects of MSN Search compared to Google is that with MSN there is no grandfathering of SERP’s (or if there is, then the grandfathering starts now). Grandfathering means Google tends to give preference to older sites in the search engine rankings even if the sites are un-optimized or worse yet, spammy. Google also gives the greatest weight to off-page factors such as inbound links.
MSN Search, however, gives greater weight to on-page elements, so new optimized websites will rank better in MSN than they will in Google. No Sandbox, no waiting. This approach gives MSN Search greater relevancy in my opinion.
Of course, I may be biased since SEO Firm is now ranked number one in MSN Search.
Though the organic search results are sandwiched on three sides by sponsored listings, MSN Search devotes more real estate to the organic SERP’s than does the new AOL Search results, making it user-friendly rather than advertiser-friendly.
At last, more marketplace competition among the major search engines is here. Because market-share is always up for grabs, this year will be a most interesting year for the Big 3 engines.
