Microsoft Squares Up to Google

Microsoft today launched an internet search engine which it hopes will challenge the global dominance of Google.

The new MSN Search has been run on a trial basis for a number of months but the final version was officially launched today in 24 countries and 10 languages.

Analysts welcomed the launch but said that Microsoft was still playing "catch up" and had some way to go before its search engine was as well recognised as Google.

In a letter publicised on the front page of the MSN website, the Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, said that the new search tool was "more precise and powerful" and had been created after listening to user feedback.

The launch comes two years after the software giant vowed to compete with Google which, after starting out as a small California-based firm, has become one of the biggest international business success stories of recent years and floated amid much fanfare in October last year.

At the moment, Google.co.uk accounts for just over 60 per cent of all visits to search engines in the UK, according to the latest figures from market researchers Hitwise. The previous search facility from msn.co.uk was operated by a division of Yahoo and had a relatively meagre 10.6 per cent market share.

Microsoft is making its money from MSN Search in a similar way to Google - through "sponsored link" adverts. These appear at the top of the screen or down the side and are relevant to the search made.

The new MSN Search claims to provide the most up-to-date information by refreshing its list of around five billion websites every two days compared with every two weeks for other search engines.

This should allow users to more easily access the latest results and have a better chance of avoiding sites which are down. The search site also boasts new options for users to fine tune their results.

Google reacted to the launch by saying that it had recently almost doubled the size of its search index to include more than eight billion web pages - around three billion more than the MSN Search site.

Paul Douglas, editor of the internet magazine .net, said: "It is always good for users to have a choice of search engines, but Google is still the name that most people know today."

In a statement, Google said: "It's nice to see that they [Microsoft] have recognised the importance of quality search as well. We welcome all advancements in search technology because it's the users who ultimately win.

"We believe that competition is good for consumers. There is room for a number of companies to succeed in this space." One new feature that Microsoft hopes will be a success draws on an online version of Microsoft's Encarta encyclopaedia, which has more than 1.4 million entries and, up until now, has been a paid-for service. In a similar way to the Ask Jeeves website, if users ask specific questions, such as "What is the capital of Peru?", they should now get a free response from the Encarta encyclopaedia. Matt Whittingham, head of information services at MSN, said: "I think consumers, maybe two years ago, were wowed by the fact that you could enter a relatively obscure search term and you would get hundreds of thousands of results.

"In fact, there is perhaps too much information out there, and what consumers want is results that are tailored to them. They want search engines to be a bit smarter, to know where they are geographically and to alter searches depending on the time of day and if they are at work or at home."

In his letter to users, Mr Gates said: "Searching the internet today is a challenge, and it is estimated that nearly half of customers' complex questions go unanswered. That's why we're proud of our new MSN Search service - a simple and powerful tool that helps you find the answers you want from sources as diverse as web pages, images, news headlines, and Encarta.

"Input from millions of our customers - including myself - was crucial to our efforts to make MSN Search the best it can be."