MSFT Search (Brad Goldberg): Brother Can You Spare a Search?

This discussion between Scoble and the head of Live Search at MSFT (Brad Goldberg) was rather uneventful so I am not going to do a typical full writeup. For those are still intrigued, here is the URL:

Link to Webcast

And a nice wordle.net tag cloud of the notes

Hope if helps

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http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/microsoft-search-will-it-use-mahalo-techniques-compete-with-google
Brad goldberg (GM of MSFT Search Business – Aka Windows Live Search)
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:37 AM
……………..○ Big announcement on cash back last week
……………..○ Query stats
…………………………….§ 40% queries unanswered
…………………………….§ 50% refined
……………..○ Targeted pages for key words
……………..○ Content … that is what they do well
……………..○ MSFT has ability – software, software @ scale, long term investment (ie servers)
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:40 AM
……………..○ Status
…………………………….§ 1st Goal … get relevant
…………………………….§ Quality of search – Believe it same across yahoo, google, msft
…………………………….§ Key goal how to get relevance high % on 1st page
…………………………….§ Up till now focused on basics of relevance
…………………………….§ Now cash base
……………………………………………□ 4 tasks in search
…………………………………………………………..® Entertain, buy, reference, navigation
……………………………………………□ Commercial focus … task basis
……………………………………………□ Niche focus
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:43 AM
……………..○ Other fundamentals – Speed, design, etc
…………………………….§ In the US, On par w/ relevance … in US … not outside of US
…………………………….§ UX – Biggest change in next 5 years (no change in last 5 years in industry)
……………………………………………□ Blended search
……………………………………………□ Universal search
……………………………………………□ Their advantage … not driven by AD $ … so they can take more risks
…………………………………………………………..® Bauer Comment – Google does limited A/B testing … not sure if that is accurate
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:46 AM
……………..○ Mobile, Local
…………………………….§ Two goals
……………………………………………□ PC Search
……………………………………………□ Mobile Search
…………………………….§ Bauer Comment – I am not sure if in the 5 year view this is a wise play
…………………………….§ Gas finder / prices
…………………………….§ Tell me – voice based search
…………………………….§ Two main mobile use cases
……………………………………………□ Mapping
……………………………………………□ Business information
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:47 AM
……………..○ How change the game? w/ Google.
…………………………….§ A few things
……………………………………………□ Great relevance
……………………………………………□ Commerce (i.e. cash back … reward for search behavior)
…………………………………………………………..® Bauer Comment – better use of their 3B $ they offered Yahoo … buy the eyeballs … a lot of market share is comfort … have to break that
……………………………………………□ Advertisers
…………………………………………………………..® Cost per action (defined by merchant) focus is ADS
…………………………………………………………..® Afraid of monopoloy … no choice (just google) … europe examples
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:51 AM
……………..○ Brand
…………………………….§ Took his dad 2 years (scoble) to switch from alta vista to MSFT
…………………………….§ Split search query types
……………………………………………□ Users are not aware (via toolbar embedded in PC or site) of engine
…………………………………………………………..® So they need a better search engine
…………………………………………………………..® HP deal last week as an example
…………………………………………………………..® Last few years not out there
……………………………………………□ Users are aware of search engine
…………………………………………………………..® Users only aware of google
…………………………………………………………..® Really they use 4 major engines
…………………………………………………………..® How create awareness
………………………………………………………………………….◊ Commercial search, cash back … provide reasons to try it on an ongoing business
………………………………………………………………………….◊ Then drive awareness (homepage, OEM, marketing)
………………………………………………………………………….◊ How much engagement (return usage)
…………………………….§ Bauer Comment – They need to run a lotto … ticket per search … gaming it would be a problem
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:54 AM
……………..○ People search
…………………………….§ How to integrate to search experience as social networks emerge and people want to find people
…………………………….§ Most of experience on people search is hard (per him)
……………………………………………□ Bauer Comment – Disagree … if you know 1-3 things about the person … you have a pretty good lock in on google
…………………………….§ Facebook … walled garden … does MSFT’s 10% stake give them special access?
……………………………………………□ Bauer Comment there is a ok result on facebook profiles
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 5:57 AM
……………..○ Media search … hard to get results that are media
…………………………….§ Two pieces to that
……………………………………………□ Video search
…………………………………………………………..® Built a browser summary of a video … quickly navigate from a set of videos
…………………………………………………………..® How create traffic … search on videos link
………………………………………………………………………….◊ Bauer Comment – Really they need one search … that dynamically adjusts
………………………………………………………………………….◊ Scoble agrees w/ that point
…………………………………………………………..® At some point there will be break through on UX to get image search going
………………………………………………………………………….◊ Bauer Comment – agree that image search on google works for me
…………………………………………………………..® Not that exciting if you don’t change the UX based on content
……………………………………………□ Weather
…………………………………………………………..® Informational query (answer on 1st page)
…………………………………………………………..® Bauer Comment – Semantic search sounds probably here
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 6:01 AM
……………..○ Back to usability
……………………………………………□ All searches stop @ 1000 results (no matter how many hits they have
……………………………………………□ Over time … users will look on a task basis
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 6:01 AM
……………..○ Mahalo
…………………………….§ Whats experience been w/ that? (asking Scoble)
……………………………………………□ He answers Google, Yahoo, MSFT .. Not satisfying wants a portal
……………………………………………□ Better experience
……………………………………………□ Head oriented query
…………………………….§ Doesn’t scale even w/ crowdsourcing
…………………………….§ 2 Styles
……………………………………………□ Portals – Human programmed experience
……………………………………………□ Search – Algorithmic result
……………………………………………□ Bauer Comment – Good point … he knows the focus of his tool … MSN is the portal
……………………………………………□ Bauer Comment – Google’s style of search types might be the wisest … blog, image, news, etc … basically categorizing pages by style of author … you get a better sense of where to present that (or allow user to choose)
…………………………….§ Ideal model has mix of algorithmic + programmatic
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 6:05 AM
……………..○ Friendfeed push
…………………………….§ New data type … activity streams
…………………………….§ Friendfeed indexes real time
…………………………….§ Google, MSFT … indexes hourly … so cutting edge focus
…………………………….§ What was your experience w/ that (his ? To scoble)
……………………………………………□ Good. For real time.
…………………………….§ How much will users segment searches by search portal focus
……………………………………………□ Friend feed – current breaking news
……………………………………………□ Mahalo – Trips
……………………………………………□ MSFT –
……………………………………………□ Google
……………………………………………□ Paid views for search … increasing focus on navigation … not discovery … sites become primary way to find other sites
……………..○ 6/16/2008, 6:08 AM
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