To hell with unpacking. As we cast a reflective glance at SXSW and MIX09 in the rearview mirror, Live Search is revving up for Search Engine Strategies in NYC next week.  Members from both sides of the Search house — Live Search and Microsoft Advertising — will speak on a range of topics, including: blended search, future of SEO, duplicate content, link building, PPC, keywords, video optimization, and best practices when...
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Today at MIX09, our friends on the Internet Explorer team announced the general availability of Internet Explorer 8. In IE8, Web users will see a number of Live Search accelerators that make surfing the Web faster and easier. Here’s a look at what you’ll see. Live Search Products Accelerator Most of us have researched or bought something online. And while it is nice to find great deals from the comfort of our homes, the experience...
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I was coming out of a doze on the plane from Dallas to Las Vegas and the man next to me with a perfect good ol’ boy Texas drawl said to his friend: “My money has a better time in Vegas than I do; it stays and I have to leave!” Las Vegas, despite its hotels’ mimicry of Paris, New York, and Venice, is a place like no other on Earth . MIX is of course a conference like no other, so the combo is unstoppably surreal. The hotel...
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10 a.m.-ish Texas time, 4 coffees later, Betsynote:  I had intended to finish this post after breakfast, but it looks like Community Server had other plans while I was eating.   Saturday and Sunday of SxSW were quite full for me – I caught snippets of two sessions before booth duty in the morning, where I got to talk to a lot of interesting folks about Live Search – video search, cashback, the deep links in the home...
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This is not the Texas weather we are used to; in fact it looks a bit like Seattle today mixed with Chicago style winds. The wet air does not smell of smoke, beer, or bbq; there are no bats. But the Internet works and the energy is getting to that crackling melting pot. We began our Friday by meeting up with our sponsored guest, Nadia Payan, for breakfast and then off to registration at the Austin Convention Center. Aya wanted to make sure we...
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We get asked it a lot. “How do I get more coverage for my site?” Over the past couple of weeks on the Webmaster Center blog, we have been sharing strategies for large sites to help them optimize their sites for search. The series, called “Optimizing your very large site for search,” covered four important areas we believe a large site should look at to improve its relevance and coverage: Part 1 We started by focusing on...
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February is upon us, and for many of us snow addicts, this is one of the most exciting times of the year. And what great luck we have this year! From the Pacific Northwest to Colorado to the Northeast, snow is dumping from above. While others are out ripping up the fresh powder, we’ve been working on ways to make it easier to find the snow. Our snow “instant answer” shows you a quick overview of ski conditions at a given resort....
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Grab a baguette, a little cheese, a bottle of wine, and head to Paris. It’s a click away with the new bird’s-eye images of Paris (and a long list of other locales). These new imagery updates are brought to you by the Virtual Earth team. The Digital Globe satellite imagery and the new bird’s-eye photos are magnifique and make the visuals at Live Search Maps almost as good as being there. Find the full list of updates and details...
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Search is increasingly becoming a tool to help people accomplish certain tasks. We took a look at some data from 2008 and want to share our findings. Last year people in the U.S. were learning to cook turkeys and to brine them. To argue with their spouses (maybe about whether to cook or brine the turkey) and to improve their marriages (probably after getting too worked up about the turkey). They wanted to learn how to make money and how to save...
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We’re happy to report that we’ve officially integrated Live Search into Firefox by popular demand. The Live Search add-on for Firefox gives you auto-suggestions from Live Search right in the browser while you’re typing your query. For example, start to type “Bruce Springsteen” into the Live Search box, and you’re shown relevant suggestions. The list of suggestions refreshes as you continue typing or when you...
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