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willed · Nov 11, 2004, 04:53 AM

"We think there is a heck of a lot of great new innovation in the search space," said Mr Ballmer. "We will catch up. We will surpass."

Don't you just hate the way MS waits for someone else to put all the money and effort into R&D to get a great product, then just barges in and copies the whole thing. The latest is MSN search, although it's only a beta at the moment which explains why it didn't actually work when I tried to test it out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4000015.stm

http://beta.search.msn.com/

Vpro7 · Nov 11, 2004, 04:57 AM

Seems a bit desperate, but I'll give it a try though. It'll probably have the usual MS spit'n'shine on it

brapper · Nov 11, 2004, 08:54 AM

what's that steve? all I hear is "oooh oooh AAH AHH!"

Anyone know if Monkey boy worked up a classic sweat over this one?

velodev · Nov 11, 2004, 09:14 AM

Wow, I'm sold... bye bye Google

Scifience · Nov 11, 2004, 09:29 AM

Originally posted by velodev:
Wow, I'm sold... bye bye Google

Same here. I think there are still a few bugs. As usual.

Oisín · Nov 11, 2004, 09:43 AM

Originally posted by Scifience:
Same here. I think there are still a few bugs. As usual.

Same here. Plus, it took exactly 1 minute and 57 seconds for the first page to load, and 3 minutes and 21 seconds for the "result" page (ie. the "site is temporarily unavailable" notice page) to load.

This baby'll blow all the other search engines right out of the water!!!

mitchell_pgh · Nov 11, 2004, 10:00 AM

It doesn't matter... people will start using it... either because they are brain dead or because Microsoft forces them to use it.

At least Apple uses what's already available. Just use Google for searching... that's their bag.

mitchell_pgh · Nov 11, 2004, 10:03 AM

I wonder if M$ will filter anti-microsoft content.

ironknee · Nov 11, 2004, 10:05 AM

arrr!!!

wataru · Nov 11, 2004, 10:15 AM

Translation: Resistance is futile.

SafariX · Nov 11, 2004, 12:58 PM

Google has one major thing for them: mindshare. Google is now a verb. I doubt anything MS does will drastically affect it.

Eug Wanker · Nov 11, 2004, 01:05 PM

Search "iMac" Near Me:

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Nov 11, 2004, 01:06 PM

I tried it yesterday and it honestly did give me better results then google.

Superchicken · Nov 11, 2004, 02:53 PM

Embrace, Extent, Exterminate... pretty soon we'll be back to typing in random URLs in the hopes we hit something.

Agasthya · Nov 11, 2004, 02:59 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Search "iMac" Near Me:

haha. I just tried that and it recognized the St. Louis part but the search results it gave had nothing to do with an iMac. In fact, the first one was about the Cards losing the World Series and the article was from Time Canada. Go Microsoft!

itai195 · Nov 11, 2004, 03:11 PM

Go figure, 'miserable failure' produces almost the same result as Google.

storer · Nov 11, 2004, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by Agasthya:
haha. I just tried that and it recognized the St. Louis part but the search results it gave had nothing to do with an iMac. In fact, the first one was about the Cards losing the World Series and the article was from Time Canada. Go Microsoft!

What did you expect?

MacNStein · Nov 11, 2004, 03:32 PM

Originally posted by itai195:
Go figure, 'miserable failure' produces almost the same result as Google.

Brought up Michael Moore here.

itai195 · Nov 11, 2004, 03:39 PM

Originally posted by MacNStein:
Brought up Michael Moore here.

LOL, so it's your new favorite search engine?

voodoo · Nov 11, 2004, 03:39 PM

Originally posted by MacNStein:
Brought up Michael Moore here.

George W Bush biography at whitehouse.gov

MacNStein · Nov 11, 2004, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
George W Bush biography at whitehouse.gov

I meant Google. Type in Miserable Failure into Google and see what the 2nd link down is (yeah, yeah, we know about the first one).

CharlesS · Nov 11, 2004, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by willed:
"We think there is a heck of a lot of great new innovation in the search space," said Mr Ballmer, "and we certainly can't allow that. We'd better do something!"

Fixed.

Mrjinglesusa · Nov 11, 2004, 05:31 PM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Search "iMac" Near Me:

Worked fine for me. Brought up the same first page as Google.

Nevermind. Used "Search" not "Near Me". The "Near Me" option is no longer there anyway.

CD Hanks · Nov 11, 2004, 05:55 PM

The heavy layer of self-righteousness isn't called for here. As I've said here countless times, this will spur real competition between Google and Microsoft. In the end, we gain.

voodoo · Nov 11, 2004, 05:57 PM

Originally posted by CD Hanks:
The heavy layer of self-righteousness isn't called for here. As I've said here countless times, this will spur real competition between Google and Microsoft. In the end, we gain.

Name one instance when competition involving Microsoft has benefited us..

Cuz I can't

itai195 · Nov 11, 2004, 05:59 PM

PDAs

CD Hanks · Nov 11, 2004, 06:04 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
Name one instance when competition involving Microsoft has benefited us..

Cuz I can't

Microsoft Windows vs. Mac OS X. You don't have to tell me which is the better product. (Hint: Fruit company.)

Want me to continue?

voodoo · Nov 11, 2004, 06:11 PM

Originally posted by CD Hanks:
Microsoft Windows vs. Mac OS X. You don't have to tell me which is the better product. (Hint: Fruit company.)

Want me to continue?

I kinda figured you'd pull that one. Sure I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but back when Apple decided it needed a next generation OS (Copland) they had System 7 and MS had Windows 3.1

Apple was years ahead.

When Apple bought NeXT they still had the better OS even as the lines were blurring fast - Windows had some sort of preemptive multi-tasking going on in Windows 98 and all that.

Every step of the way Apple has been the leader. I am assuming your point is that MS has always kept Apple on its toes, but personally I question that. Apple has never been afraid to excel. That has always been a part of the brand (I know what I'm sounding like here but this isn't so far from the truth, generally speaking).

Microsoft and Apple haven't even been competing since, what? 1997?

At least not officially

ambush · Nov 11, 2004, 06:16 PM

TERRIBLE interface. Trying to Google's simplicity is not that easy after all, eh, M$?

CD Hanks · Nov 11, 2004, 06:18 PM

^^^ Verbs help a lot.

Originally posted by voodoo:
I kinda figured you'd pull that one. Sure I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but back when Apple decided it needed a next generation OS (Copland) they had System 7 and MS had Windows 3.1

Apple was years ahead.

When Apple bought NeXT they still had the better OS even as the lines were blurring fast - Windows had some sort of preemptive multi-tasking going on in Windows 98 and all that.

Every step of the way Apple has been the leader. I am assuming your point is that MS has always kept Apple on its toes, but personally I question that. Apple has never been afraid to excel. That has always been a part of the brand (I know what I'm sounding like here but this isn't so far from the truth, generally speaking).

Microsoft and Apple haven't even been competing since, what? 1997?

At least not officially

I see what you're saying. It's fairer to say that they keep each other on alert and in a competitive state.

Sure, back in 1997 when Gates was on the monitor at MWBoston, it seemed like the "war was over" or something. As far as I was concerned, that was a convenient favor that coincidentally helped pull MS's ass out of the DoJ's fire.

As long as Windows has been around, Apple and MS have been in a state of competition, gentlemen�s agreement or not.

ambush · Nov 11, 2004, 06:46 PM

Originally posted by CD Hanks:
^^^ Verbs help a lot.

They do. I asked them to do my laundry. Heck I was surprised by the results.

CD Hanks · Nov 11, 2004, 06:51 PM

Originally posted by ambush:
They do. I asked them to do my laundry. Heck I was surprised by the results.

What the hell?

as2 · Nov 12, 2004, 02:11 AM

It doesn't seem to flag up any porn when you type in women masturbating or other such porn related search strings.

It just gives links to councelling and techniques!