As an aside toward the end of a post last week, MSN Web Search GM Ken Moss noted that MSN VP Christopher Payne will be "showing some intriguing improvements" to MSN Search during his address at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego. Payne's speech is Wednesday morning. Moss didn't provide any hints, but here's the advance teaser for Payne's speech, from the conference Web site:
As search continues to grow in scope and complexity (yes, it is getting harder, not easier), search engines will need to make explicit use of network effects between users to help return relevant results from the "tail." The tail of niche information continues to grow and one way to improve the search experience, especially of those niche queries, is to leverage a network or community. Come hear what MSN Search has up its sleeve in regards to the future of search and how search will function in a Windows Live world.
Any guesses as to precisely what that's referring to? Whatever it is, the news may well emerge before Wednesday. Microsoft has scheduled an MSN-related announcement for Tuesday night, Pacific time. Check back for details.
Meanwhile, if you missed this last week, the main point of Moss' post was to state MSN Search's position on reports quoting Neil Holloway, Microsoft's European president, as saying that MSN Search will be "more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google" in six months. In this comment on John Battelle's Searchblog, Holloway wrote that the quotes didn't accurately reflect what he was trying to convey. Moss wrote that MSN "won't forecast when we might take the lead."
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