New MSN search

seattleniceguy

Okay. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a major fan of Google. Google is great, Google is changing the world, yadda yadda yadda.

But for once, I really have to give it up for the boys at Microsoft. Their new search engine has some very cool features.

Go to http://search.msn.com

You can ask natural language questions that have straightforward factual answers, and get a definitive anwser from Encarta. For example, try:

What is the longest river in the world?
What is the population of Turkey?
Who was the third US President?
When was Einstein born?

It can't figure out everything, but it does a remarkable job. But that's not it. Try giving it math problems:

What is 4 + 9? (easy stuff, right)
What is 4 + 9 * 3? (it understands order of operations!)
What is the square root of 13?
What is tan 45? (trig functions!)

Search engines that refer you to web pages are great. But there's something exciting about having definite answers from an encyclopedic source right there on the results page. Way to go, MS!

SNG

MidwichCuckoo

BUT, will it ever be able to take the place of 'Awake! ' surpassing its informative and educational content?

Elsewhere

Wow... the results are very impressive and blazing fast.

I did a search for Jehovahs Witness and the watchtower.org site was not listed on the first few pages of search results I looked through.

Guess who was the first non-sponsored link: JWD!

@seattleniceguy, Google does all these things, but MSN has perfected it. I tried the tan and simple arithmetic, and google does that too. But if you ask the population of Japan you have to go directly in a web page, but if you ask the population of America it will tell you straight away!

Euphemism

Like inquirer said, Google already does math. It also does question-answering, although apparently not quite as well as MSN yet.

MSN recently came out with http://virtualearth.msn.com/, which seems to identify street addresses more correctly than Google Earth does. (At least in Boise, where I live.)

Competition is good. You know that Google is now going to work extra-hard now to surpass whatever Microsoft has done, and that just means more cool features for us.

gringojj

Midwich, how about a search feature on watchtower.org that gives you an annoying wts scriptual answer to any question? How would they answer trig questions?

It would bring you to another question-- Trigonomotry- Satans favorite numbers game?

observador

"BUT, will it ever be able to take the place of 'Awake! ' surpassing its informative and educational content?"
Midwitch, that was really good! What a laugh! Thanks.
And thanks, SNG, for sharing the info.

the_classicist

Just another way for MS to spy on us. First they check for illegal software and whatever else they feel like with their Windows Genuine Advantage. Now they can tell what things we surf on the internet. Though, I'm sure the motives aren't sinister beyond the fact that they want to squeeze us dry from our money.

I'll never be separated from Google (until the rare day when they start charging for it).

Preston

The Google is good, the Google is great, we surrender
our will as of this date!

... nananananananana Google! Nananananananana Google!

I love the Google!

- Preston

seattleniceguy

the_classicist

Just another way for MS to spy on us. First they check for illegal software and whatever else they feel like with their Windows Genuine Advantage. Now they can tell what things we surf on the internet.

Uh...you might want to simmer down and read up on these things. What you wrote is almost entirely nonsensical.

SNG

New MSN search

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