• Ars Technica, Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:45 AM

Many industry watchers don't think Microsoft stands a chance in search, so why does the software giant persist in chasing Google? In short, "search is not solved," says Microsoft search team member Stefan Weitz in an interview with Ars Technica's Emil Protalinski. "We're not at where we'd like to be."

Weitz explains that people are generally happy with search until the data shows they are no longer happy with it. Well, in the last six to 12 months, Microsoft has learned that only about a quarter of users are satisfied with the results of their first query; about half either refine their query or start over altogether. Protalinski says this analysis is "actually spot on," though it may sound incorrect. "What Microsoft is saying here is that everyone should be able to find what they are looking for on their first attempt, every time," he says. Of course, "That's a goal Live Search is nowhere near reaching."

Protalinski asks Weitz about three key problems the Live Search team is now trying to address with the new project, codenamed "Kumo." They are: relevance, dissatisfaction when hitting a roadblock while searching, and how to make a richer experience when you get results back. The last one is particularly interesting, as the layout of search results hasn't changed much at all in the last decade. Weitz says that Microsoft is hoping to "get beyond the 10 links" by rolling new features into Live Search that Google and Yahoo don't offer.

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