MSN Suspends Search Preview, Adds New Hotmail Services

MSN rolls out new "life management" features for Hotmail users and removes the test version of its upcoming search engine.

MSN has been tweaking its services lineup this week, rolling out a couple of new services and temporarily withdrawing the test version of its new MSN search engine. On Tuesday, MSN removed the alpha release of its forthcoming algorithmic search engine from the MSN Sandbox site, as first reported by the BoostMarketing.com Web site. (The MSN Sandbox is a collection of technologies under development by MSN and other Microsoft divisions.) MSN is planning to launch another preview release of its MSN Search engine later this year. In the meantime, MSN is continuing to provide users with Web search using its current MSN Search facility. "Thank you very much to all of those that tried our service and sent us feedback. We will make improvements based on the suggestions we received. Once we are ready, we will release another preview of our new algorithmic search engine," read a note on the MSN Search Tech Preview test page. Microsoft had posted the MSN Search alpha code on June 30 as part of an open test program. MSN officials have said that Microsoft will launch both its new MSN Web search, as well as a new MSN desktop search service by the end of 2004. Also on Tuesday, MSN introduced several new, free MSN services that its calling "life management features" for its Hotmail customers. Click here to read the full story at Microsoft Watch. Check out eWEEK.coms Windows Center at http://windows.eweek.com for Microsoft and Windows news, views and analysis.

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