Here’s some fun while away. The question: What one feature would you add
to MSN Search? Sky’s the limit… imagine infinite money, infinite devs
and testers, etc. etc. It could be a big verticle, such as book search
(search within a book), a UI change (ditch MSN and just do search), or
something that’s a bit fanciful (do recipe search, and have the smell of
the dish with each result). Whatever you want, just name it.
Disclaimer: I’m not saying we’ll do any of these, and by saying
something you’re not going to get hired / patent rights / royalties /
etc. There’s no prizes / awards, this is just done for fun. We might
already be implementing what you suggest, or we might do it because of
your suggesting. Google, Yahoo, and other engines may do the same. So if
you have some killer idea that you think is worth some bucks, don’t tell
us! Go find a VC and do it yourself!
OK gang, have at it!
A few things:
1. Change the UI please. I don’t understand why EVERY search result needs to have its title text in bold. It is irritating to the eye.
2. Search Result Clustering. How much would it take for you guys to integrate MSR’s Search results clustering app into the main MSN Search. If it just happens to be Beta, (even Alpha!), the idea is great, and it wouldn’t be bad to experiment with it.
3. Pull results for searches about .net etc, from the MSDN newsgroups.
Search all scientific papers available, including those that are normally members only like IEEE papers.
Microsoft should buy experts-exchange.com to be able to search answers to PC problems.
After the Channel 9 video, I don’t have anything to add. I can’t believe you guys are exposing ranking modifiers! Microsoft Search says “people” won’t use those.
I have some things I’d like to see, but, well, that’s top secret - and if the VC finally goes through - sad thing is, maybe some features I’ve dreamed up have already been done - like you were saying about Altavista and the others - that you guys might bring back features that were already there, what features? Where’s the museum where I can find out?
Above all, DON’T let MSN get into the search appliance space - with Microsoft Search running that, the competition is a joke - if you guys took that on, I’m moving to a different space