How Microsoft Can Improve Live Search

My Switch from Google to Live Search for 1 Week

As some of you may know, I decided to switch to Live Search for 1 Week from Google.  While I overall was impressed with Live Search since last using it nearly a year ago, there is still a long way to go to make Live Search a strong competitor to Google.  Below I outline my experience, and more than anything, my constructive feedback to Microsoft. Hopefully the Live Search team is reading!  I break my reasoning up into three categories as to why Google is still the best Search out there:  No Compelling Reason to Switch, Relevance and Newness,  User Interface Issues, Microformats and Webmaster Tools

No Compelling Reason To Switch

Let’s be honest, in order to get me to switch from Google, I need a really compelling reason to switch.  I already use gmail (miguelcarrasco@gmail.com) because Hotmail became ridiculous in terms of spam.  Google rocks when it comes to spam.  I also have a ton of web sites out there, and I use Google Webmaster Center to manage all the sites and stay on top of them from the “Google Bot’s” perspective.  I also use Google Reader (reader.google.com) for my RSS reader, and I use Google Desktop to search my desktop.  Let’s be honest, I love Microsoft, just read my blog… but I use all these products because they enable me to do my work faster.  I don’t use Google docs because those products slow me down vs Microsoft Office.

Anyway, so I use all these tools, in order to use Live Search, it’s a lot of work!  The same thing that has helped Microsoft push Internet Explorer, and other products in the past (switching to Firefox, Opera, WordPerfect is a lot of work), is hurting them in this case.  There is simply nothing significantly better than Google Search in Live Search.  Even watching presentations on Live Search, you can hear in the presenters voices the “We are getting better” and the “Soon we will be as good as Google in Search”.  I’m sorry but that doesn’t sell the product.

To change people’s habits, like Google did to Yahoo!, Microsoft must outperform and outshine Google!  So far, they haven’t done this.  Microsoft needs to innovate in search.  Why not allow people to vote sites up or down right in the search.  Why not allow people to comment on search results.  Why not track people’s comment and rating relevance by combining the search algorithms with the ranking and commenting system to give certain people more weight than others.  Why not tie all this together with people’s Live accounts.  Why not tie in the ability to bookmark sites you search and like, and have them appear in your MSN spaces or facebook profiles.  Ton’s of ideas that would make me go… “hmm neat feature, I’ll use it”.  Right now, what is the coolest feature in Live Search that Google doesn’t have?

Relevance and Newness

I don’t know what kind of steroids Google is using, but lately their search index updates nearly daily on some sites, and on some sites, they update a couple times a day!  The same search I do on Google, on Live Search produces “older” results.  Let’s take an example like “Silverlight Teched”.  I run this search on Google and I get:

Perfect!  Exactly what I was looking for!  I get Somasegar’s web log link to his TechEd 2008 Keynote on stage performance with Bill Gates.  I click the link, get the complete details of the keynote, and am pretty happy with what I’ve learned very quickly.

Now I go and do the search on Live Search and I get:

Um, ok, I wasn’t really looking for any of this at all.  I know there is a Microsoft TechEd site.  And I am clearly not looking for the “Click Here to Install Silverlight” which now appears on nearly every Microsoft site.  So now I go and click on the next link.  The next link is a link to a forum that talks to me about TechEd 2007.  Really old content.  Once again not what I was looking for.

Notice the Google search results link to web pages that were created yesterday.  After all, clearly I want information that is up to date.  I also want information, and not links to corporate sites.  I can clearly see  a few issues here in the Live Search Algorithm.  Some key points:

1. Google knows that when I type 2008, I’m talking about a date, and that I want something this year.  It knows I don’t want “Windows Server 2008”.
2. Google puts more weight on sites that have the search terms together on the page.
3. Microsoft is putting to much weight on the sites link juice, and not enough on the above two measurements.

User Interface Issues

While a lot of people see Google as  lacking design and user interface elements, they actually have user interface down to a science!  Let’s quickly summarize what I’m talking about because it’s getting late and I have to get to bed.

1. Live Search centers the search if your screen is large.  This is not good because I am used to looking on the left.  Google slams everything on the left.  Awesome, that’s where I look first.  So with Live Search, I’m usually left feeling “weird” right after I search, even before I see the results.
2. Google clearly separates what I searched, with the results.  Live search blends everything together, which also makes me feel weird, and unsure as to where to look.
3. Where is similar pages?  Google knows you might like the results, but want more of the same.

Below is a diagram of some of the issues I see with Live Search that makes me twitch when I use it and almost like a reflex, makes me try and go to Google.com to perform the same search.

Microformats and Webmaster Tools

Ok if there are any Microsofties reading this blog, or even Bill Gates himself, let me ask a question:  “What MADE Microsoft what it is today?”  The answer is, DEVELOPER TOOLS!  So here is my question.  Where are the developer tools for Live Search?  And by developer tools, I mean, what can webmasters use as tools to optimize their web pages for Live Search.  Google has some wicked tools, and I know Live has a few tools like Webmaster Center, but they pale in comparison to Google Webmaster Center.  It’s like comparing Notepad to Visual Studio. 

Microformats is also the future.  Defining pages in great detail.  Every element.  This posting is already long enough, but imagine if I would have searched Silverlight TechEd 2008 and up should have come up the latest blog entry, a video of the presentation, a powerpoint, maybe even the agenda, and directions to TechEd.  THAT would have got me excited.  See the more relevant information you can give to the user before he has to click on the link, the more valuable the results are.  Even if Live Search and Google gave me the same exact links, I would like the one that gives me more details about the links before I even click on them!

How can we do this?  I know Live Search is partnering with various providers to communicate with them a-la biztalk.  What’s your communication mechanism and language, and I will understand.  I personally hate that approach.  Instead, why not push a standard way of defining videos, web pages, blogs, news, etc. (microformats)?  Create standard ways to define context on the web!  People will jump all over it, and already have to be honest.

Conclusion?

I would love two weeks with the live search team.  That’s my conclusion.  lol.  I love Microsoft, and I wish they would get search right!  They have the people, the capability, the scale, everything they need.  They just need the image, drive, passion, and direction.  The reality is, the way things are going, they are going to catch up to where Google is now, but at the same time Google will make webmaster center better, analytics rock, desktop search better, adsense better, they will adopt microformats, and leave Live Search in the dust.

What is funny is Microsoft is rocking Adobe Flash with Silverlight by implementing the strategy they should be implementing with Google! Innovation Domination, and better developer tools!

If you liked this article, please share it on DZone, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it.