A few Microsoft things…

February 15, 2006 By

New Office 12 details were released. Brian Jones has the details.

New MSN Search UI. And better results, at least on my early test. I like it a LOT better. Results are now higher on the page. And check out my ego feed. Google still displays my old URL as #1, but MSN is showing my WordPress.com link as #1.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Blog Tips, Microsoft Office, Second Life
  • Jonathan

    Too much wasted, empty vertial space in the new MSN Search page. There shouldn’t need to be a vertical scrollbar–I shouldn’t need to maximize the browser window in order to see what’s on the bottom. (Maybe it was like this before; I don’t know since I don’t use MSN Search.)

  • Jonathan

    Too much wasted, empty vertial space in the new MSN Search page. There shouldn’t need to be a vertical scrollbar–I shouldn’t need to maximize the browser window in order to see what’s on the bottom. (Maybe it was like this before; I don’t know since I don’t use MSN Search.)

  • met

    What’s the easiest way to get to msn search?

    http://www.msnsearch.com? I don’t like http://www.live.com or http://www.msn.com or http://www.msn.com/search (if there is one such)

  • met

    What’s the easiest way to get to msn search?

    http://www.msnsearch.com? I don’t like http://www.live.com or http://www.msn.com or http://www.msn.com/search (if there is one such)

  • met

    There were times I used to go to yahoo because I couldn’t remember google.com :)

  • met

    There were times I used to go to yahoo because I couldn’t remember google.com :)

  • http://handelaar.org/ John Handelaar

    Start.com, on the other hand, has you listed as an staff choice, and at the wrong address.

    (UK version, which is what we get in Ireland for some reason.)

  • http://handelaar.org John Handelaar

    Start.com, on the other hand, has you listed as an staff choice, and at the wrong address.

    (UK version, which is what we get in Ireland for some reason.)

  • http://jnewland.com/ Jesse

    I don’t like this new MSN Search UI one bit. The results page looks very much like a mis-typed url advertisement landing page.

    The Google search results are probably because of the amount of links to each one of those blogs:

    Google finds only 8,300 links to http://scobleizer.wordpress.com, yet finds 35,100 links to http://scoble.weblogs.com

    Further, the MSN description for your blog is this:

    “By the way, this blog post was published by Robert Scoble on 2/11/2006 and the only place it should appear is at http://scobleizer.wordpress.com — if you are reading this post on some other URL, you ..”

    Doesn’t help much. Google has this (for the new site):

    “Robert Scoble works at Microsoft (title: technical evangelist). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is …”

    That’s more appopriate if you ask me.

  • http://jnewland.com Jesse

    I don’t like this new MSN Search UI one bit. The results page looks very much like a mis-typed url advertisement landing page.

    The Google search results are probably because of the amount of links to each one of those blogs:

    Google finds only 8,300 links to http://scobleizer.wordpress.com, yet finds 35,100 links to http://scoble.weblogs.com

    Further, the MSN description for your blog is this:

    “By the way, this blog post was published by Robert Scoble on 2/11/2006 and the only place it should appear is at http://scobleizer.wordpress.com — if you are reading this post on some other URL, you ..”

    Doesn’t help much. Google has this (for the new site):

    “Robert Scoble works at Microsoft (title: technical evangelist). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is …”

    That’s more appopriate if you ask me.

  • http://www.swoofware.com/ Matt Smith

    I gotta say that I like the ego search results for my name. I’m 5th out of 1.8 million. And searches in our product category for our application have it in 2nd place.

    – Matt Smith –
    MyHomePoint – Powering the Modern Family
    SwoofWare – It’s only work if somebody makes you do it

  • http://www.swoofware.com Matt Smith

    I gotta say that I like the ego search results for my name. I’m 5th out of 1.8 million. And searches in our product category for our application have it in 2nd place.

    – Matt Smith –
    MyHomePoint – Powering the Modern Family
    SwoofWare – It’s only work if somebody makes you do it

  • BryanF

    Where exactly does MSN Search fit in the online strategy? With the release of Windows Live, I thought MSN Search was going to be rebranded as Windows Live Search–similar to how Virtual Earth became Windows Live Local. Yet with this refresh, Microsoft’s search still has the MSN brand. Was I mistaken?

    Anyhow, it’s a nice refresh. I’d love to hear from the search team what kind of enhancements have been made under the hood.

  • BryanF

    Where exactly does MSN Search fit in the online strategy? With the release of Windows Live, I thought MSN Search was going to be rebranded as Windows Live Search–similar to how Virtual Earth became Windows Live Local. Yet with this refresh, Microsoft’s search still has the MSN brand. Was I mistaken?

    Anyhow, it’s a nice refresh. I’d love to hear from the search team what kind of enhancements have been made under the hood.

  • http://netweb.wordpress.com/ Stephen

    International
    Australian
    New Zealand
    Melbourne

    live.com

    And a sortcut for very fast typing to get to the internalional sites.
    http://ouhn.net (Dvorak Keyboard users)
    http://sfjl.net (Normal Keyboard Layout)

    Oh yeah MSN does RSS

  • http://netweb.wordpress.com/ Stephen

    International
    Australian
    New Zealand
    Melbourne

    live.com

    And a sortcut for very fast typing to get to the internalional sites.
    http://ouhn.net (Dvorak Keyboard users)
    http://sfjl.net (Normal Keyboard Layout)

    Oh yeah MSN does RSS

  • http://www.liveside.net/ Chris

    The easiest way to get to msn search is search.msn.com

    As for where MSN Search fits into Windows Live and MSN Search, who knows.

  • http://www.liveside.net Chris

    The easiest way to get to msn search is search.msn.com

    As for where MSN Search fits into Windows Live and MSN Search, who knows.

  • http://mentalvelocity.wordpress.com/ John Moody

    On the Office 12 announcement – I’m surprised that they’re replacing Outlook with OneNote in the new Home and Student edition. OneNote is a really great app (especially for students), but what about all of those students with smartphones or Windows Mobile devices? What are they going to sync to, if not Outlook?

  • http://mentalvelocity.wordpress.com/ John Moody

    On the Office 12 announcement – I’m surprised that they’re replacing Outlook with OneNote in the new Home and Student edition. OneNote is a really great app (especially for students), but what about all of those students with smartphones or Windows Mobile devices? What are they going to sync to, if not Outlook?

  • http://blogs.x2line.com/al/ Anatoly Lubarsky

    Now that green button looks like a pain in the ass :) .
    Man, do the page just plain white with ordinary gray button.

    I did not notice any changes in search (except that yours radio site is gone).

  • http://blogs.x2line.com/al/ Anatoly Lubarsky

    Now that green button looks like a pain in the ass :) .
    Man, do the page just plain white with ordinary gray button.

    I did not notice any changes in search (except that yours radio site is gone).

  • http://blogs.x2line.com/al/ Anatoly Lubarsky

    Make a search for Robert on both…

  • http://blogs.x2line.com/al/ Anatoly Lubarsky

    Make a search for Robert on both…

  • http://www.madskristensen.dk/ Mads Kristensen

    I just heard today that the official name of Office 12 will be Office 2007. You’d have to think they could come up with a more original name like they did for Windows Vista.

  • http://www.madskristensen.dk Mads Kristensen

    I just heard today that the official name of Office 12 will be Office 2007. You’d have to think they could come up with a more original name like they did for Windows Vista.

  • solomonrex

    Wait, since many sites still link to your old post, (like http://www.news.com or cnet.com) shouldn’t the Google result be the right one? Is there a way to find which page actually has more links to it? Isn’t it possible that the msn search actually has it wrong, because it’s over-weighting ms sites, that actually kept their links up to date? I’ve got to find this out now.

  • solomonrex

    Wait, since many sites still link to your old post, (like http://www.news.com or cnet.com) shouldn’t the Google result be the right one? Is there a way to find which page actually has more links to it? Isn’t it possible that the msn search actually has it wrong, because it’s over-weighting ms sites, that actually kept their links up to date? I’ve got to find this out now.

  • http://weblogs.asp.net/dotnetrolando Rolando Ramirez

    “I’m surprised that they’re replacing Outlook with OneNote in the new Home and Student edition”

    probabably because Vista includes Windows Mail & Windows Calendar, not sure about its sync capabilities.

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forhome/mail.mspx
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forhome/calendar.mspx

  • http://weblogs.asp.net/dotnetrolando Rolando Ramirez

    “I’m surprised that they’re replacing Outlook with OneNote in the new Home and Student edition”

    probabably because Vista includes Windows Mail & Windows Calendar, not sure about its sync capabilities.

    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forhome/mail.mspx
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forhome/calendar.mspx

  • JD

    The MSN search page doesn’t render well in Opera. mousing over the ‘tabs’ ends up erasing part of the top line of the search box.

    That’s with JScript on. With it off, there is no top line to the search field.

    As for URL, I’d prefer to use “live.com” and bear with the minimal extra info on the page, but it doesn’t render in Opera at all. So I use “msn.com” though it’s a somewhat heavy page, at least the search field is there, and it’s less letters than google.com.

    Of course I use search shorcuts even more often. “g Scoble” searches google for for Scoble’s ego (yup, not hard to find his ego). I set up “m Scoble” to search MSN. Google is still better, but MSN is improving.

  • JD

    The MSN search page doesn’t render well in Opera. mousing over the ‘tabs’ ends up erasing part of the top line of the search box.

    That’s with JScript on. With it off, there is no top line to the search field.

    As for URL, I’d prefer to use “live.com” and bear with the minimal extra info on the page, but it doesn’t render in Opera at all. So I use “msn.com” though it’s a somewhat heavy page, at least the search field is there, and it’s less letters than google.com.

    Of course I use search shorcuts even more often. “g Scoble” searches google for for Scoble’s ego (yup, not hard to find his ego). I set up “m Scoble” to search MSN. Google is still better, but MSN is improving.

  • James Bailey

    If you change your motherboard will you need a new Office 12 license to continue using it?

    http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/2006/02/15/microsoft-upgraded-motherboard-new-licence/

  • James Bailey

    If you change your motherboard will you need a new Office 12 license to continue using it?

    http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/2006/02/15/microsoft-upgraded-motherboard-new-licence/

  • http://netweb.wordpress.com/ Stephen

    WordPress anti-spam is quite effective…

    More than 3 links and it gets dumped in the bin….

    Robert, can you grab my comment and ‘approve’ it :)

    Cheers

  • http://netweb.wordpress.com/ Stephen

    WordPress anti-spam is quite effective…

    More than 3 links and it gets dumped in the bin….

    Robert, can you grab my comment and ‘approve’ it :)

    Cheers

  • http://cetamac.blogspot.com/ CetaMac

    office 12, more RAM will be consumed…………and more money for it.

  • http://cetamac.blogspot.com CetaMac

    office 12, more RAM will be consumed…………and more money for it.

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