Windows Live Product Search!

Betsynote: In advance of questions – Yes, this works stuff in Firefox. Yes, I want to go shopping.

We are pleased to announce the beta release of Windows Live Product Search (http://products.live.com).

Product search leverages the latest research from Microsoft Research Asia to find products available on the internet for sale.  At beta, the index contains commercial offers from over 100,000 sellers, which is made possible by integrating new algorithmic product classifiers and information extraction technology into the search system.

Traditional shopping search sites enable search over data provided by select merchants.  Leveraging a wide range of information on the web enables indexing of hard-to-find and unique products and sellers available online.  Try searching for your favorite products or give the following team favorites a try: alien queen 1/4 scale, bhindi masala, or Andrew Jackson signed documents.

The user interface stays true to the simplicity of the search paradigm and inherits many features common to the Windows Live search family such as smart scroll, image hovering, and level of detail slider.  In addition, users are able to refine their searches by: Related term, Brand, Seller and Price.

There are still many features that that are not yet implemented in the initial Beta for Product Search.  These features include: product ratings & reviews, item clustering and a bigger selection. The product team is continually working on improving the quality of the site and would love to get your feedback: http://feedback.live.com/default.aspx?productkey=wlsearchproduct&P1

You can find more information about Product search and the Product search team on the Windows Live Product search Blog (http://spaces.msn.com/productsearch)

— Imran Aziz, Lead Program Manager
On behalf of the Windows Live Product Search team.