Microsoft Makes Big Investment
On New Searching Technology
Microsoft Corp. may be the most recognized software company on the planet, but when it comes to searching the Internet, people are much more likely to "Google it."
Microsoft wants to change that, and it's betting millions that someday it will be as well known for online searches as Google. The software firm's push comes amid an exponential growth in information -- on desktop computers, on online photo albums, on Web sites.
"And the more information there is out there, the more difficult it becomes to find relevant information and content," said Rob Lancaster , a senior analyst with the Boston-based Yankee Group. "The information glut, as it is popularly known, is becoming a real problem for lots of businesses."
Beefing up search is a smart move for Microsoft, Mr. Lancaster said, and should strike some fear in the hearts of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other companies that offer search engines.
It won't be easy to shove those two aside, however. Danny Sullivan, editor of online newsletter Search Engine Watch, noted that Google (
www.google.com) and Yahoo have loyal followings.
And several other players are also trying to grab some of the multibillion-dollar possibilities in Internet searches.
IBM Corp. just announced a searching technology, called WebFountain, designed to not only find text in a variety of places online but also analyze its meaning.
Still, Microsoft has a strong position currently as one of the Web's top three search sites.
"Unless they make some terrible mistake they're going to continue to be a very strong player," Mr. Sullivan said. "If they've decided it's important and they want to grind away at trying to solve the problem, they have a good track record of putting together good software to do that sort of thing."
Microsoft has its eyes set beyond mapping the Web.
It is developing search-related technologies to do everything from sorting through digital photos to combing through items scattered on your desktop computers.
The goal is to answer an Information Age-old problem -- how do you find what you're looking for? -- in a time when electronic information is becoming ever more dense.
"If you have to struggle through looking for things in hundreds of different places, it's just going to be intolerable," said Susan Dumais, a Microsoft senior researcher who is developing a tool for rapidly finding material that users have seen -- regardless of whether it was an e-mail, Web site or document.
Some of Microsoft's efforts to simplify search on the Internet will soon be in place.
The new version of Microsoft's MSN Internet service, available this winter, will include a tool for retrieving digital photos based on images in the pictures. For example, users can ask their computers to retrieve all pictures that include a specific person's face or background.
But many analysts are most closely watching Microsoft's project to develop its own indexing and searching system for the Internet -- and how the technology might later be deployed throughout the company.
Analysts estimate that Microsoft, which has long relied on outside companies to provide the search tool on its MSN Web site, is spending millions developing its new search engine. Microsoft won't comment on how much it is spending, how many people it is devoting to the project or what companies it might try to buy.
MSN decided several months ago it was time to create its own technology instead of relying on search companies Inktomi and Overture, said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general manager of MSN.com. He said it was unrelated to Yahoo's acquisitions in the last year of Inktomi and Overture.
Rather, Microsoft saw how important search has become, Mr. Koenigsbauer said, and contends that no one is really doing a good job sorting through the mass of Web sites to answer queries.
Indeed, if Microsoft can build a better search engine, "it's wide open at this point," said Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester Research.
Mr. Koenigsbauer wouldn't say when Microsoft's new search tool will appear, or what technical changes Microsoft is making to improve search.
"That's the secret sauce," he said.
But he said better personalization is one way to improve searching. For example, if MSN knows that the computer user searching for "pizza" lives within a specific ZIP code, it can deliver results of pizza places in that ZIP code.
Google and Yahoo representatives wouldn't comment on the potential search competition from Microsoft.
Beyond satisfying consumers, better searching can be lucrative.
Many companies pay or bid for inclusion in search sites' listings -- typically in a cordoned-off section for advertisers -- based on the key words the user enters. For example, a company that sells shoes might pay to be listed on queries for "Manolo Blahnik mules."
Such paid listings are expected to generate more than $2 billion in revenue for search sites in 2003, Forrester Research's Ms. Li said.
Although Microsoft hasn't revealed many details about its new Longhorn operating system, the company has said it plans to build a unified file system that allows a quick search across everything in a computer, regardless of whether it is an e-mail or other specialized document.
Ms. Dumais and other Microsoft researchers are studying how people refine their searches for documents they've seen before and want to retrieve -- using special dates as a memory cue or the sender of the document as an identifying characteristic.
Others, led by Gordon Bell in Microsoft Research's lab in San Francisco, are looking at how to build what amounts to a computer backup for people's memories.
Mr. Bell has developed a way to store phone calls, bills, pictures and music on a computer hard drive, with a search tool that can sort through it all.
微软豪赌搜索引擎新技术
微软(Microsoft Corp., MSFT)可能是全球最著名的软件公司，但提到互联网搜索引擎时，Google则是人们的首选。
微软希望能改变Google一统搜索引擎天下的局面，微软耗资数百万美元进行相关投资，以期有朝一日在搜索引擎领域能够与Google并驾齐驱。当前，在台式电脑、网上相册及网页上的信息数量正呈指数级增长态势。
总部设在波士顿的Yankee Group的资深分析师劳柏?兰卡斯特(Rob Lancaster)表示，信息数量越多，找到相关信息及内容的难度就越大，众所周知，信息爆炸已成为众多公司的现实问题。
兰卡斯特称，进军搜索引擎领域对微软是明智之举，将令Google Inc.、雅虎公司(Yahoo! Inc., YHOO)及其他搜索引擎服务公司不安。
Search Engine Watch网上时事通讯编辑丹尼?苏立文(Danny Sullivan)表示，Google与雅虎均拥有忠实的用户群，微软希望后来居上并非易事。
其他数家公司也希望能从互联网搜索引擎这一高达数十亿美元的市场中分得一杯羹。
国际商业机器公司(IBM Corp., IBM)最近宣布了一项称做WebFountain的搜索技术，该技术不仅能在网上大范围地寻找相关内容，并且还能对内容进行分析。
不过，作为网上3家顶级搜索网站之一，微软当前的处境非常有利。
苏立文称，除非这些公司出现超级错误，否则它们仍将是行业领先者。
微软的目标不仅仅是找到网站那么简单。
微软正在开发与搜索相关的一系列技术，这些技术能分类搜索数字图片以及搜索散落在电脑不同目录中的文件。
微软的目标是，在电子信息数量急剧膨胀的今日，给信息时代“如何寻找目标内容”这一老问题一个满意的答复。
微软的资深研究员苏珊?德麦斯(Susan Dumais)正在开发一种快速查找工具，帮助用户找到他们想要寻找的电子邮件、网站或文件。她说，如果用户不得不在数百个不同的地方寻找目标，那将是令人无法忍受的。
微软为简化互联网搜索付出了不懈的努力，部分努力成果即将得到显现。
微软MSN Internet新版网站将于今年冬季推出，该网站可向用户提供以图片中的图像来检索相关图片的工具。例如，用户可检索包括某个人脸部或某个背景的所有图片。
但许多分析师最为关注微软开发自己的互联网索引及搜索系统的计划，以及相关技术晚些时候将如何在整个公司内部推广。
分析师表示，长期以来微软一直依赖其他公司为其MSN网站提供搜索工具，预计微软正耗资数百万美元开发自己的搜索引擎。但微软并未就项目开发的财力与人力投入，以及可能会收购哪些公司等问题发表评论。
MSN.com总经理克尔克?柯尼斯波尔(Kirk Koenigsbauer)表示，该公司数月以前决定自行开发技术，而不再依赖Inktomi与Overture这两家搜索公司的技术。他说，开发自有技术与雅虎去年收购了Inktomi及Overture无关。
柯尼斯波尔称，微软认识到信息搜索日益重要。他还坚持认为当前没有一家公司在搜索领域做到尽善尽美。
Forrester Research分析师查林?李(Charlene Li)表示，事实上，如果微软能构建更好的搜索引擎，那么该公司就能更进一步。
柯尼斯波尔并未说明微软新搜索工具将于何时推出，也没有指出微软对哪些技术进行了改进以提高搜索能力。
他说，这是商业机密。
但他表示，个性化是提高搜索功能的一种途径。例如，如果用户寻找特定地区的比萨店，那么搜索结果则提供该地区比萨店地址的信息。
Google及雅虎的相关人士均拒绝对来自微软的竞争压力发表评论。
除满足用户需求外，提供优质搜索服务还可获得丰厚收入。
许多公司为进入搜索结果的页面而付费或竞标，广告商为进入有利位置的竞争更是激烈，例如，用户搜索“Manolo Blahnik”凉鞋这个词，如果一家制鞋公司想出现在搜索结果页面上，它可能需要付费。
Forrester Research的李表示，预计搜索网站2003年因此而创收20亿美元以上。
尽管微软并未披露有关Longhorn新操作系统的详细情况，但该公司曾表示，它计划建立统一标准的文件系统，从而可快速搜索电脑上的一切内容，不论是一封电子邮件还是其它指定的文件。
德麦斯及其他微软研究人员正在探讨用户采取何种方法缩小检索范围，以找到他们曾经见过的文件－－他们发现用户借助特殊日期或文件发稿人等记忆来达到这一目的。
以微软实验室的高登?贝尔(Gordon Bell)为首的一些研究人员则在研究如何在电脑上为人们的记忆进行存储备份。
贝尔借助一种可对所有文件进行分类的搜索工具，开发出在电脑硬盘上存储电话号码、帐单、图片及音乐的方法。
