In what seems to be an act of desperation, MSN Search has been offering searchers gifts and money in return for conducting searches. Why is the software giant stooping to such depths? Is the product just bad or are MSN fighting an uphill battle?
Pros of MSN Search
- The results found by MSN Search are often as good as those found by Google, if not better
- MSN Search does not currently produce loads of spam-type sites in its top ten results
- The search builder function makes advanced search functionality much, much easier to use
- Advertisements served by MSN’s Ad Center promise to be much more targeted through various personalization features.
Cons of MSN Search
- The index is not as big as Google’s, which means hard to find results are often better searched on Google
- While the engine is not as popular, it seems to enjoy higher quality of results, but will be just as prone to spam once its popularity rises
- The results are much more easy to manipulate, which means quality is susceptible to deterioration due to spam.
Is MSN Search Better Than Google?
MSN Search is definitely not anywhere near as popular as Google. This does not mean that the quality of its results is bad, though. In fact, people who use MSN often find just what they are looking for. Google, however, has the advantage of having built an enormous brand loyalty, which MSN is now struggling to shake off. Also, they have much deeper pockets and the advantage of far-reaching control over users’ desktops. Both of these, combined with the fact that they recognize the importance of search and are aggressively working towards the top, mean that they could well be on the way to making a better search engine.
Will MSN Search Unseed Google?
This question brings us back to the topic on hand… MSN has been handing out goodies to searchers, with the hope that once they use their service they will be hooked. Or that’s what they say.
Google joined the search race much later than Yahoo! AltaVista and Hotbot and has still managed to carve itself a healthy chunk of the market. And it did so without paying anyone to use its services.
MSN’s latest actions seem like they’re trying every trick in the book. And maybe it might work, but not anytime soon, as far as we can tell!
