MSN Search: a brief history of the MSN search engine

MSN Search is a service offered as part of the Microsoft network of web services, although it only developed its own search index at the start of 2005. Prior to this, MSN Search used to display search results from our services, most notably Inktomi, which was the leading 'white label' search provider for many years.

Microsoft was surprisingly slow to enter this field, with Bill Gates famously doubting the opportunities being offered by the Internet during the 1990's. However, once Microsoft realised that there was potential here, they launched their Internet Explorer browser (to the detriment of the established Netscape product) and started to dominate the market in their usual fashion of 'bundling' products together with their operating system and core software products. Microsoft was slow to recognise the potential of search and have watched Google establish itself as the leading force in this market - and potentially a serious competitor to some of Microsoft's other established areas of market dominance.

Microsoft started to commit to search in 2003 and, rather than purchase an established service, they developed their own search database, which was launched in Spring 2005. They have also developed their own pay-per-click advertising service, rather than continue to share revenues with Overture (which is owned by Yahoo) and following initial testing, this launched in Spring 2006 with a range of new management functions not seen elsewhere.

The story has been the same with MSN Search. This is an impressive search engine that reflects much of what is good about Google, although the overall quality of results has yet to be proven. Despite this, the search functions offer some new filtering tools and Microsoft is also developing local search, image search and news search options to compete with Google and Yahoo. Supported by the Microsoft network and product integration, MSN Search is already a significant player in the search market and is likely to be the main challenger to Google's current dominance.

Read our MSN Search optimisation tips.

Learn more about the other main search engines: Google and Yahoo Search.

To find out how your website can achieve a high ranking on MSN Search and the other top search engines, contact us now for more information or to request a FREE website assessment to see how well your site currently performs.