Report: MSN Has Caught Google

A report to be published in the next issue of the British weekly New Scientist says that MSN Search has caught up with Google, at least on technical grounds.

It asked software engineers to test an early version of Microsoft's MSN Search service. The experts gave MSN Search high marks for quick retrieval of data, for the quality of hits, the ability to respond to natural-language questions and possibility of finetuning the search.

"The differences between the search engines are now so slight, it's going to be hard for any company to differentiate on technical grounds," Chris Sherman of SearchEngineWatch website in Darien Connecticut, told New Scientist.

Because Google basically reinvented search, there is a perception that catching up to them is impossible. If Microsoft can erase that perception, then it can beat Google based on its other offerings. Of course, the first step to pulling even with Google is releasing MSN Search Beta to the general public.
(via News24)