Microsoft have just launched their new search engine. Because there aren't enough search engines in the world, obviously. Or at least, there aren't enough search engines guiding global online consumers towards Microsoft services, Microsoft-approved links and Microsoft products. There has been an MSN Search before but that was just a placeholder powered by the same people who run Yahoo, and it's only now that the complete service has been brought fully in-house. I wonder if Bill Gates has left things a bit late too this time, having given the competition almost a decade to establish themselves? I hope so, because no conglomerate deserves total world cyberspace domination.
I thought I'd test out the newest search engine on the block to see how it compares to existing search engines. And I started, as most people do, by typing in my own name to see what came up...
Google:
Top result:diamond geezer Powered by Blogger (diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/)
Ranking of my blog: 1st.
Google likes me. It didn't to start with. Two years ago when you searched for 'diamond geezer' you got "the personal jeweller with over 35 years of diamond and jewellery experience" followed by rugby team Harlequins' "Brightest & Loudest Supporters". Today you get me followed by them. Today this webpage is the destination of the "I'm Feeling Lucky' search button. World domination, it appears, is easy, and merely requires 900 days of uninterrupted blogposting. And an awful lot of links to (and from) other webpages. Thank you Google, I'm honoured.
Yahoo:
Top result:diamond geezer Monday, January 31, 2005. The best of January. (diamondgeezer.blogspot.com)
Ranking of my blog: 1st.
Yahoo also likes me. So much so that commercial heavyweight diamondgeezer.com has had to pay good money to leapfrog above me in the Yahoo search listing to appear as a sponsored result. I'm not bitter, and I'm delighted to provide yet another free link back to them in the hope of boosting their corporate profile.
MSN Search:
Top result:DIAMOND GEEZER - matching you with your perfect diamond (www.diamondgeezer.com)
Ranking of my blog: unranked.
MSN Search doesn't like me. MSN Search doesn't list my blog at all. Not 1st, not 2nd, not even 56386th. MSN lists plenty of blogs that link to me, but doesn't list mine. Closer examination reveals that MSN doesn't link to any blog whose URL includes the eight letters 'blogspot', but does link to blogs hidden behind their own generic domain name. Hence casino-avenue.co.uk is the 8th top result for diamond geezer, pixeldiva.co.uk is 13th and kebabylon.com is 19th, but you won't find a single Blogger blog in there. All of us blogspotters have been omitted en masse - not just relegated further down the listings but outlawed completely. I can understand that some people might want to search the internet without being waylaid by irrelevant posts from frothy blogs, and it's good that these people now appear to have a choice. But this looks like a blatant attempt at censorship.
Other MSN Search features:
• The search listings layout looks supiciously similar to the Google design, but with a blue bar across the top.
• They've provided a (dull) newsfeed with categories extremely similar to those on the BBC website.
• It appears to be impossible to view any further than the 250th (or so) search result.
• You can read Microsoft Encarta articles (but only for two hours).
• I shan't be using it.
