SplaTT's Blog

MSN Search Champs V2 announced and guess who has been invited?

MSN's Search Champs V2 program was officially announced over at the msnsearch weblog over a week ago...so i guess i can talk about this now.

For those that don't know and are asking the question..."What is Search Champs?"

"One of the most successful programs was Search Champs, which included about 30 of the world's most influential technology enthusiasts from the field of search. Invited to Microsoft in October, they were given a special in-depth preview of the beta release and encouraged to provide detailed input on how MSN could improve the service, both in the initial release and beyond. " Quote from MSN Search Launch press release in February of 2005.

If your interested in what happened at Search Champs V1, check out Robin Good's report.

And the good news is that I have been invited to become a member of "Search Champs V2" which kicks off in Redmond this April. The team over at Microsoft and MSN have done a fair bit of work over the last 12 months and it will be interesting to see exactly what they have up their sleave and will be showing us at the Search Champs V2 event.

Now...where do i sit on the search engine fence???

I do actually use MSN Search...I use it as much as i use Google...the way i like to keep an eye on the serach engines is to run the same queries through them..well..most of the time. To be honest Google has had a fair share of preference from me as its results have been "more correct for me", but that has been changing...v e r y  s l o w l y.

I love the MSN desktop search...i tried Googles for about a week then switched it off, while the MSN bar has been on my desktop since it was released. But...I did use to run both the Google and MSN bar in Internet Explorer...(you can never have enough pop-up blockers ;) and i only recently removed the Google bar in favour of the MSN bar.

The other stuff i really like is some of the new XML feed (RSS and ATOM) integration the MSN guys have been releasing as well. A great example of that is some of the updates that myMSN has had over the last 12 months and also with some of the "MSN Sandbox" stuff they have let out like start.com/1 and start.com/1. The two start.com sites seem to be getting updated as well with new features (check out their MSN Spaces site)...sort of like a really early alpha release for us all to play with.

I am really looking forward to being a part of Search Champs V2 and have to thank the team for inviting me. The opportunity to see what is being worked on for the future releases, and to be a part of a (no doubt) great group of poeple and help to shape its direction in even a miniscule way will be a great expereince.

Seattle and Redmond...here i come :)

Addendum: Sean Carver from the MSN team has sent through some more details including the invitee list....and Robin Good has worked up a blog post with most peoples details

Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic at March 29, 2005 4:50 PM | TrackBack