The new MSN Search is here

Bill always vowed to take a chunk out of Larry and Sergei's armour and it would appear that MSN's assault on Google has now begun in earnest. The MSN search has been revamped, now with "less clutter" (although there's still plenty of that!) But more significantly, here in Europe Bill has started to TV advertise the new MSN. It isn't since the launch of Ask Jeeves many moons ago that anyone has attempted to influence search behaviour with telly ads!

I hope he succeeds in increasing MSN's market share: both searchers and marketers would benefit from a more level playing field. As a searcher I love Google, as a site owner i'm just really frustrated with them.

But they're already fighting back with the (controversial) new AutoLink and Autofill toolbar features. Maybe the battle for the hearts and minds of searchers will be fought with toolbars, rather than TV ads... It should be interesting to watch.