What’s new with Windows Live Search?

We’ve  launched new features designed to put the user in control, while making search tasks easier and more natural Live Search. There are a host of subtle changes that we hope just make the experience a bit more pleasant, like better description text and improved typography to make quickly scanning results easier. We’ve also tidied up the look of the page from the last version because, well, we look at this page every day, too.

Here’s some of the new functionality that we hope makes working with results easier:

The scope bar that appears after you query provides a natural way to refine the type of information you want about the topic you’ve entered. The level of detail slider is a first step to letting you determine how much information to show on the page. You’ll find, if you slide the peg all the way to the right, the ability to search within a site. With a click, you can do a quick search for something more specific within a given site. Smart Scrolling  takes advantage of Ajax to move results fluidly within the page; no more reloading an entire page to get to the next 10 results.  We’ve also built an on-the-fly feed reader (in Feeds, click the preview icon next to the feed title) that you can use to preview feeds before subscribing to them (one click adds them to your live.com homepage).

We know that this is just a start and we look forward to improving the search experience based on what our users need to quickly and easily find the answers they are looking for.

Laura Baldwin
GPM MSN Search