• by February 1, 2005

Ah, yes. It's the day before Groundhog Day, the first day of February, and the debut of Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Search. We've been teased, prodded, and introduced to countless betas and now, finally, the real thing. MSN Search is officially out of beta and Microsoft is crowing about its new baby, big time. We wouldn't expect anything less.

MSN has positioned MSN Search as offering more precise results, "Find what you're after," is the tag line of a multi-million dollar global ad campaign that fires off today in 25 counties - yes, 25 countries simultaneously.

In focusing on precision as a point of differentiation, MSN takes aim at Yahoo! and Google. It's hoping that the product is robust enough to make up for its late entry into the search space. In fact, Microsoft is now relying on its own technology, not Yahoo!'s, to do the heavy lifting; prior to investing in its own search technology, MSN relied on Yahoo!'s Inktomi. MSN says that its search query results will go beyond offering links to offer real and specific answers to questions.

Executives say that MSN Search aims to offer more relevant answers than the competition. MSN Search will offer searchers definitions, calculations, geographical and historical information, and use Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia to help make answers more relevant. Microsoft says it will have an answer for every search query.

In the "mine is bigger than yours" race, Microsoft's new search engine has a database index of more than 5 billion Web documents and pages, while Google boasts an index of more than 8 billion pages. Oh brother.

Something fairly nifty: Microsoft has integrated results that link directly into the MSN Music service. That's a good thing; maybe more people will remember there is an MSN Music service. Also, searchers will be able to create their own RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. Those feeds enable searchers to track results via data feeds on their PCs.

Apart from launching Search, MSN has also overhauled the MSN.com home page and Web portal to make it less cluttered and faster. The page does look cleaner and MSN says it's faster too; the page looks more like a newspaper now. The Minute plans on sampling MSN Search more actively now; it's just staring us in the face - the online ads (you can't miss them) on Internet Explorer; it's everywhere. Literally.

On another matter, we were interested to see that America Online has teamed up with Mobile 365, a mobile messaging provider, to conduct a text-to-vote campaign in conjunction with AOL's Super Sunday Ad Poll. Participants can view and vote for their favorite Super Bowl spots on AOL and AOL.com, but they can also text in their vote via mobile phone, SmartPhone, or personal digital assistant. The campaign runs through Feb. 7. The big game, of course, is on Feb. 6.

Participants register by texting the word "VOTE" to short code "GO AOL" (46265). On game day, participants will receive a reminder text message to vote for their favorite commercial and instructions on how to vote. After the game, participants will receive a text message with the top results and a link to view rebroadcasts of their favorite commercials at AOL's Web site. Participants pay 50 cents to vote via mobile phone.

Last year, AOL says fans streamed commercials available through the AOL Super Sunday Ad Poll 9.2 million times and cast more than 3.5 million votes.