If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

MSN News
Russ Cabe, Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.

MSN has released a new version on their search engine in beta mode.  To use this beta version, go to http://beta.search.msn.com.  The release of this beta version probably means that they are pretty far along in the development phase and that we may see MSN’s own search results pretty soon.  We like what we have seen so far.  With limited testing, the results they are providing have good relevancy and we see a good presence for many of our clients, which is very encouraging.  There are a couple of interesting options that you might want to check out if you are interested in search and how search engines work.

There is a “Near Me” feature that is supposed to feature local results.  Right now, the feature needs a lot of work, as the results being provided are not very relevant at all.  We suspect, however, that this is one of the things that will get the most improvement from the beta version to the general release.

Most of the really interesting features are found in the “Search Builder” section.  In here, we find a backward links tool that shows a much more comprehensive list of the links to a site than Google’s link tool.  It also affords us an opportunity to see what linking strategies are working in the MSN beta mode.

Another fun tool to play with that can teach us what factors MSN is using for ranking sites is the “Results Ranking” tool.  With it, you can use a sliding scale to alter results based on how frequently a site is updated, how popular a site is, and the strictness of the filter for the keywords in your search.  In playing with these tools, you should be able to get some ideas on what ranks well in the new MSN.
As is the case with almost all search engines, link popularity plays a huge role in how a site performs in the MSN search.  One departure from the norm, however, is that MSN seems to be giving a great deal of weight to sites that are “fresh”.  In other words, if your site is updated frequently, MSN will favor it over sites that are more static.  This means that going forward, one aspect to ranking well in MSN will be to frequently update your site.

MSN still has some work to do on their results, but all things considered, we are pretty excited about what we have seen so far.  We will keep you updated as things progress.

 Email This Post |  Print This Post

Categories: Travel Marketing.
Comments RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a comment, or trackback.