Brief Profile:
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Overview
This is the perfect site for those who think Bill Gates does not yet have
enough influence on their lives. MSN is very similar to Snap, but with
a little less functionality. At the moment, like Snap, the interface
and search options, especially the "More Options" version, are very
similar to those offered by HotBot, but significantly scaled down.
For its Website database, MSN is again using Inktomi (the same database
as HotBot, Yahoo, and some others use.) MSN has added a directory,
using LookSmart (though the identity of the directory source is not explicit
on the MSN site.)
Also, if you do decide to use MSN, don't go to msn.com. That is
the Microsoft home page. Go to search.msn.com.
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Just one more look-alike search engine.
Nothing at all original here |
On MSN's home page you'll find:
Query box - You can enter single words, multiple words,
phrases (in quotes) and also use truncation. If no operators are
used, the words are automatically ANDed. You can use a minus in front
of a term as a NOT" You can also use full Boolean: AND, OR, NOT,
( )
Link to the advanced version
Option to see 10, 20, 50, or 100 results per page
Option as to whether or not results will show summaries
Add-Ons -
More Searches - Links to other search engines
Yellow Pages search
White Pages search
Newsgroups search
Search of Microsoft's corporate site
Link to Microsoft's free email service, Hotmail
Shopping - Shopping guide
Money - Personalizable financial channel
People & Chat - Chat, communities, white pages, etc.
Links to Microsoft's international sites (Canada, France, Germany,
UK)
Buy Books, Chat, E-cards, Event Tickets, Free Games, Messenger Service,
"Quick links":
Air Tickets - Buy Books - Buy Music - Chat - Downloads - E-cards
E-mail - Encyclopedia - Get Online - Maps - Movie Times - Sports Scores
Stock Quotes - TV Listings - White Pages - Yellow Pages
Back to Top
MSN's Advanced Search Page
On MSN's Advanced Search Page, you'll find:
Query box ("Search the Web for")- You can enter single
words, multiple words, phrases (in quotes), and use either simplified Boolean
(+term, -term) or full Boolean (AND, OR, NOT, ( ) ).
Link to MSN Search's home page: "Cancel Advanced Search"
Output choice of::
10, 20, 50, or 100 results per page.
show results summaries, or not
"Find" window, allowing you to choose, for what you enter
in the query box:
all the words
any of the words
words in title
the exact phrase
Boolean phrase
Links to URL
Language window - Choice of searching any one of nine languages
(Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,
Swedish)
Search by geographic area
Domain search (e.g., edu, com, mil, netcape.com, nasa.gov)
Last modified choice (anytime, last week, last month, last year)
Results must contain :Media type to be required in the page (image,
Java, etc.)
Links to Microsoft's international sites (Canada, France, Germany, UK)
Add-Ons -
More Searches - Links to other search engines
Yellow Pages search
White Pages search
Newsgroups search
Search of Microsoft's corporate site
Link to Microsoft's free email service, HotMail
Links to Microsoft's international sites (Canada, France, Germany,
UK)
Autos - Buyer's Guide - Computing - Entertainment - Games
MSN Insider - News - Personal Finance - Real Estate - Shopping
Small Business - Sports - Travel - Web Communities
Web Events - Women
"Quick links":
Air Tickets - Buy Books - Buy Music - Chat - Downloads - E-cards
E-mail - Encyclopedia - Get Online - Maps - Movie Times - Sports Scores
Stock Quotes - TV Listings - White Pages - Yellow Pages
Back to Top
Search Features Provided by MSN
Boolean
In both simple and advanced version, if you enter just terms (no operators)
the terms will be ANDed.
In both simple and advanced versions, you can use a minus in front of
a term as a NOT" (e.g., -flowers)
In the advanced mode, you can also use full Boolean:
AND
OR
NOT
( )
However, be sure to choose "Boolean phrase" in the "Find" window,
otherwise your operators will be ignored.
Field Searching
MSN allows searching of two specific fields, title and links.
Title
To only retrieve records with a specific word in the title, choose
"words in title" in the "Find" window, and enter your term(s) in the query
box.
Links to URL
To find pages which contain links to a particular page:
Choose "Links to URL" from the "Find" window choices, and enter your
term(s) in the query box.
For example, if I wanted to find pages which have linked to my own page
(www.onstrat.com), I'd choose "Links to URL" in the "Find" window, then
in the query window, enter:
Truncation
In either version, you can truncate by using the asterisk.
horse*
will retrieve horse, horses, horseman, etc.
Output
In either version, you can specify your choice of:
10, 20, 50, or 100 results per page.
Also, by clicking or unclicking the "Show results summaries"
box, you can choose to see or not see a summary with each record
Directory
MSN uses LookSmart, the
same directory used by AltaVista and HotBot and which is also available
directly at LookSmart.com
Summary
MSN Search is very much a "lookalike" service, there primarily because
Microsoft feels it should be a (dominant) player in the search engine arena.
The engine provides nothing particularly unique.
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