What's truly unfortunate is that Microsoft did actually built it properly at http://search.msn.com, but it's hidden so 90% of their websites users will never find it. If they had scrapped their "new and improved" msn.com homepage in favor of the streamlined one at search.msn.com, I might have given more credence to their efforts. Heck, they could even have their "news" link go to their old page for the people that want it, while giving most of their searchers a simple, fast interface.
The problem is that MS, like most huge corporations, is actually run by program and department managers with competing views of what "should" be offered in their products, and just about everything they crank out is a compromise. I'm sure that there were people at MS who wanted the search.msn.com interface to be the default, but I'd bet good money that they were shot down by the departments responsible for collecting and publishing those "news" articles, and from the ad sales department who wanted their ads front and center. Rather than look at the best solution for the user, they were interested in preserving their own glory and departmental importance.
Google doesn't have that problem, and their management is far more centralized so these types of fubars don't happen. MS needs to take a page from the Google playbook and realize that they need to put the USER first, not their employees or profits. Built it, and the users will come. Built it right, and the users will come with profit. As they have built it, I don't see MSN search being noted for anything other than an "Also Ran" in the Search wars (which is tragic, because the search localization feature is actually pretty nifty).
I guess it's been a couple of months ago, but I gave their search a look, especially the image search. It was okay, and pretty much uncluttered, but Google is still better.
I looked today, and I didn't even see an image search choice. Either I missed it or they dropped it.
I freely admit there's something about MS that un-nerves me, considering their shady business practices, and how they've gone the Big Brother route, (much less how things that have no business accessing the net raises firewall alerts on my machine. I run ME, and it's even worse with my friends new XP rig he got this weekend). I just don't feel comfortable with them anymore. Not that I'm safe with Yahoo mail or anyone's search, but still....
If you enter a search term from your "My MSN" page, you won't have a choice for images, but will if you enter the term on the search line in Hotmail.
The top image is from coming through Hotmail, and notice the amount of search results. Which is the new and improved version? Must I sit through Quasi's mindless drivel and the Super Bowl to find out?
