Windows Live Academic Search scours the Web for journal articles, academic papers, and notes and slides from scholarly conferences.
Microsoft is quietly adding services to its Windows Live portfolio to compete with services Google and Yahoo already have in place.
The software company has launched a new search engine for academic journals last week, and while it’s yet another example of Microsoft trailing Google in online software (digital maps and desktop searches also come to mind), Microsoft is showing what looks like a new willingness to take some chances and loosen up its release schedules.
Microsoft confirmed through its Waggener Edstrom Inc. public relations firm that it is readying two new searches — Windows Live Product Search and Windows Live Academic Search — that will be a part of Windows Live Search.
Microsoft may be lagging in the search market, but give its engineers credit for moving fast to catch up.
The LiveSide blog, written by Microsoft-dedicated beta testers and Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), previously reported on the new search offerings. MVP is an award Microsoft gives people who are active and helpful in communities for Microsoft’s different product groups.
The beta release focuses on computer science, electrical engineering and physics and is available in seven countries.
The initial beta version of Windows Live Academic Search lets users scour the Web for journal articles, academic papers, and notes and slides from scholarly conferences in the fields of computer science, electrical engineering, and physics. It has deals with groups such as the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to index content from their journals, and publishers Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, with more than 10 publishers involved overall.
You have to subscribe, but it’s still a useful tool for researchers, students, librarians, and journalists who need to narrow the Web to a specific area of interest. The site competes with Google Scholar, which covers a broader range of subjects.
The academic search engine performs some tricks Google’s can’t, says Justin Osmer, a senior product manager for search at Microsoft, citing the ability to mouse over a result to see an abstract, and the use of authors’ names as hot links to their other published work. Those admittedly aren’t as big a deal as content and depth, but at least Microsoft is in the game.
Academic Search, aimed at Google Scholar, will allow users to search articles in academic journals or find out if books or articles are available in a library located near the user, according to another LiveSide posting.
The search system is a cooperative effort between the publishers, Windows Live Search and industry association CrossRef.
Amy Brand, director of business development at the not-for-profit publishers’ reference organization CrossRef, said the new service would benefit both academics and publishers. This academic search tool is designed both to improve the online research experience and to respect the concerns of the publishing industry, said Mr. Brand.
“We look forward to bring even more content into Microsoft Academic Search as the initiative develops.”
Like Google Scholar, Microsoft’s academic search tool is currently in the beta testing stage. No date has been given for it moving out of beta.
“We are looking forward to hearing from our customers during this beta period, which will help us improve upon what is available today,” said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Windows Live Premium Search.
Microsoft also has set its engineers free to cook up broader Web search functions for Windows Live, the site that eventually will replace MSN Search as the company’s standard-bearer for finding things on the Web. Microsoft is experimenting with novel ways to improve searches for advertisers and users, including pairing search terms with demographic information doled out by MSN subscribers, usability features like a scroll bar to peruse results, and search engine macros for power users. "Not all of them are going to work," says Gary Flake, a technical fellow at Microsoft. "Not all of them are going to resonate with users." But the point is that Microsoft is finally willing to try some things online it doesn’t consider sure bets.
According to LiveSide, Academic Search will allow users to do the following:
- View an abstract for an academic article in a search preview pane;
- View the complete article, as long as it is not being hosted on a Web site that requires a subscription or is restricted-access;
- View a complete article as long as they have a valid subscription to do so; and
- Purchase an article electronically using the British Library.
In an e-mail, LiveSide’s Overd wrote that it seems Microsoft is "stacking up the services against Google."
Windows Live Product Search will be similar to Google’s Froogle service www.froogle.com, in that it performs price comparisons on products and allows the user to refine the search results by category, brand, seller or specific keywords, according to a LiveSide posting by Chris Overd, one of the blog’s authors.
It is also rumored that as well as including expert or user-provided buying guides, Product Search will also provide access to discussions on products from articles and blog posts, something Froogle does not yet do, he wrote.
Yahoo Inc. also allows users to search for products through its Shopping search service, which can be accessed on its home page at www.yahoo.com.
Microsoft also recently made available an image search for Windows Live that is similar to Google’s image search service, http://images.google.com/.
The service, called Windows Live Image Search allows users to search for images on the Web. It is available in both the U.S. and the U.K. at http://www.live.com/ by typing in a search term and clicking on "Image" to find images.
Yahoo also offers image searching as an option on its search homepage.
Microsoft said that Academic Search would be available in beta form before late September. The company declined to disclose release details for Product Search, but said they would be forthcoming.
So, Microsoft has donned the mantle of the underdog in search. "We are further along toward matching the industry leader, who has been in the industry for years," says Lisa Gurry, Microsoft’s marketing director at MSN. That defense rings hollow. If the company can keep up the pace of innovation, though, its results may start speaking for themselves.
Microsoft said it was working with multiple organizations to expand the service and bring new subjects online in the near future.
The current service offers English versions in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia.