Microsoft to Answer Yahoo! Answers
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Written By Reprise Media | April 14, 2006 | Share This
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With social search in heated competition to be the Next Big Thing, and Microsoft’s recent blitzkrieg to mirror the features offered by major engines and other popular sites in full swing, it almost seemed inevitable; BusinessWeek reports that MSN is set to add a social ‘question-and-answer’ service “in the coming months” - and they might also acquire Eurekster.com, a community-based search pioneer.
The details are vague so far, but the upcoming tool sounds similar to products like Yahoo! Answers beta. According to BusinessWeek:
“The feature will let users direct questions to a specific universe, such as a group of friends, rather than to get automated lists of results from a generic search engine.”
Sounds like email could do the trick in that situation, but we’re guessing that other ’specific universes’ will include a broader range of online community expertise.
As Yahoo!’s been on the forefront of social search expansion with their flurry of Web 2.0 acquisitions, it’s not surprising MSN wants to emulate them. Yahoo!’s vice-president of advanced products Bradley Horowitz comments in the article that “These searches are monetizable.” Of course, so is any search, but Business Week speculates that “advertisers may pay more to have their ads associated with searches that have a social component” because Yahoo! thinks users are largely using them to research purchases.
Threadwatch thinks the whole social search business is hyped up, and rattles off several reasons, including the tendency of folks to distrust groups more the larger they get. Meanwhile, Search Engine Journal says, “the social media structure is working so well for Yahoo that it is only natural for MSN to want a piece of the pie - especially since MSN’s network is so comparable to Yahoo in terms of everyday registered users and demographics.”
Topics: Microsoft |