The service is available at www.Live.com, the customizable home page that is the heart of Microsoft's "Live" initiative. It still is very much in beta, as Windows Live Search is being developed to eventually replace the MSN Search service that debuted last year.
Microsoft also announced that it acquired Onfolio Inc., which offers a tool that lets people clip and save text and links from the Web. Financial terms were not disclosed. Microsoft says it has incorporated the technology into a new version of its toolbar, Windows Live Toolbar, which was also released Wednesday.
The new Windows Live Search features include a slider bar for increasing the number of results on a given page, and a smart scroll function for viewing results by continuously scrolling down a page, rather than clicking from one page of results to the next.
In addition, Microsoft said Windows Live Search offers the ability to quickly conduct a search within a limited set of a person's favorite sites.