Microsoft Communities

Live Search

Live Search News Launches

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Apr 16th @ 3:30 PM

The Live Search team has just launched a new feature for finding news on the web: Live Search News. Here, you can find the latest news stories, categorized as "Top Stories," "World," "U.S.," "Local," "Business," "Politics," "Entertainment," "Sports," "Sci/Tech," and "Health."

The site has several really great features, one of which is the local news sidebar. Although you can access local news by clicking on the category page, having the sidebar there makes keeping tabs on your state's news even easier - especially when you just want a quick glance at the top stories.

Another cool feature is the "breaking news" bar at the top. You won't see this all the time, but when a big story is released, you'll see an orange bar at the top linking to the article.

When you're browsing the news, you can click "more on this story," to pull up a whole list of related stories about that topic while, in the sidebar, you are presented with options to refine by location or category or perform related searches.

Another unique feature to Live Search News are the "news videos" sections found midway down on most of the categories' main page. Here, you can access the days big stories in video format - and we're not talking videos from a user-gen site here - the videos come from Reuters TV, AP Video, Fox News, ABC News, USA Today, CNN, and other similar news organizations. What's even cooler is that you don't have to leave Live Search News to view them - just rolling over the video with your mouse will begin to play their stream.

The site also has a clean and well-designed look and feel and will certainly appeal to news junkies everywhere. 

Tags: , ,

New Live Search Features for Windows Mobile and Blackberry

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Apr 4th @ 9:05 AM

Along with the announcement about the new version of Windows Mobile, version 6.1, it was also announced that Live Search for Windows Mobile and Blackberry is going to be updated, too. The updates include mapping contacts, Virtual Earth integration, voice input, and weather.

The ability to map contacts means you can see the locations of those in your address book on a map so you are then able to easily get directions to that location.

The Virtual Earth integration will offer you the ability to make "map collections," or custom maps that you or your friends create. The maps are made on your PC prior to viewing them in Live Search.

For Blackberry users, the new version of Live Search will offer voice input, something that previously only Windows Mobile users had the ability to use. With voice input, you only need speak a command in order to find businesses or get directions via Live Search.

Additionally, weather will be added to Live Search, so you can see both the current conditions and the 4-day forecast.
Tags: , ,

Left vs. Right

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Feb 7th @ 1:00 AM
A new Live Search promotional site, Left vs. Right, has been launched. The site features two new anchors, left-leaning "Patrick O'Neil" and right-wing "Britt Hayes," who represent both sides of the political spectrum. In the middle of the page is a search box which will perform Live Search queries. When you type in a keyword or question in the search box, the two characters will began a humorous discussion or debate about the topic. Or perhaps just insult each other. Even if you don't type anything in, the characters will begin a funny skit. Hilarious time-waster! (via Inside Microsoft)
Tags: , ,

Let's Discover Live Search

Posted By: Nuri Cankaya | Jan 4th @ 4:26 AM
Live Search is a set of different search tools and options that shifts search experience. In this screencast we will cover basic search options and after text, image and video search we will look to the products search, health search, book search also. After 6 November 2007 the relevance of Live Search is increased tremendously; especially in Turkey. So I recommend you to use www.live.com for local and global searches.
Tags:

Live Search työkalu tarjoaa nopean tavan omiin eri palveluiden hakuihin.

Posted By: Jukka Wallasvaara | Jan 3rd @ 7:39 AM

imageLive Search työkalupalkki tarjoaa näppärän tavan lisätä omia hakukohteita helposti käytettäväksi.

Olemassa olevia hakupalvelun tarjoajia voidaan helposti lisätä hakupalkkiin valitsemalla haluttu palvelun tarjoaja listasta. Lisäksi erittäin näppärä ominaisuus on luoda omia hakupalvelu, jolloin voidaan lisätä mikä tahansa url parametrejä tukeva hakupalvelu pikahaun piiriin.

Hakupalveluiden lisääminen on todella näppärää, kuten alla on kuvattu.

 

 

 

 

Live Search Tool

imageTyökalun alasvetovalikosta valitaan lisättävien tarjoajien haku(Find More Providers...),

josta saa helposti lisättyä valmiita palvelun tarjoajia hakupalkin hakukohteisiin.

Näppärää, eikö vain?

 

 

 

 

 

image

Mielenkiintoisena ominaisuutena on kustomoitujen hakupalveluiden lisäys mahdollisuus, jossa voidaan parametrien avulla ottaa käyttöön mieleisen palvelun hakuominaisuudet - suoraan työkalusta käytettäviksi.

Jos esimerkiksi halutaan käyttää webistä löytyvää ilmaista sanakirjapalvelua, voidaan sen hakutoiminnallisuudet tuoda yhden painalluksen taakse.

Uuden palvelun lisäyksessä tulee syöttää sivuston haku url siten, että hakukentän arvoksi laitetaan TEST -teksti, jolloin tässä esimerkissä URL tekstiksi tulee: http://www.ilmainensanakirja.fi/trans?Q=TEST&Q2=&P=12

Lisäksi hakupalvelulle annetaan tietysti nimi.

Tämä url vastaa sanakirjasivuston osoitetta, joka tuottaa parametrinä annetun sanan käännöksen englannista suomeen.

Kun tiedot on syötetty, hyväksytään lisäys.

image

 

 

 

 

 

image

 

 

Haettaessa valitaan vain haluttu palvelu, jota halutaan haussa käyttää ja se on siinä.

Palveluja voipi sitten olla niin työpaikat, keskusteluryhmät, autot, yms, mitä sitten tuleekin tarpeeseen.
Tags: , , , , , , ,

New Live Search Features

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Nov 2nd, 2007 @ 1:14 PM
The Live Search team announced on their latest blog post some great new features for Live Search: Autospell and Stemming. They hope that these features will help to return the best search results for your intent, and not just the particular terms you searched for. The Autospell feature determines whether or not you've misspelled your search term and delivers you a page of spell-corrected search results as opposed to a "Did you mean _______?" link at the top. They promise that this feature will only be activated if they are "absolutely, completely, totally, 'no doubt about it' confident you misspelled one of your search terms!" The second big improvement is stemming. What stemming does is match the "stem," or root of the word, rather than the exact word. As an example, they reported that users had told them that the search "half price book Redmond" returned terrible results, but "half price books Redmond" was much better. Wtih stemming, searches for "half price book" will now also return the results of "half price books." Stemming is tricky because you can "stem" all the time - a search for "cable" could mean TV or some type of cord! So the challenge with stemming is knowing when to turn it on and off. Try some searches for yourself and then let the team know what you think!
Tags: ,

Live Search for Blackberry

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Oct 26th, 2007 @ 4:01 AM
OK, so you don't have a Windows Mobile device. Like many busy professionals, your mobile device of choice is a Blackberry. But now, that doesn't mean that you have to miss out on having Windows Live Search on your phone! With the recent introduction of Live Search for Blackberry (beta), you, too, can get the best of what Live Search Mobile has to offer - including local search, maps, directions, traffic conditions, and more, and all of it custom designed for BlackBerry. To get the download, visit wls.live.com on your Blackberry phone. On the page that displays, click on the "Download" link. If you don't have a Windows Mobile Device or Blackberry, you can use Live Search from your phone's browser at m.live.com.
Tags: , ,

Free 411 from Live Search

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Oct 25th, 2007 @ 1:22 PM

On Monday, Live Search 411 was officially launched. This voice-activated local search service lets you do local searches right from your phone just by speaking. To use the service, call 1-800-CALL-411 (1-800-225-5411) from any phone in the U.S. and say where you are and what you are looking for. The service can also send you text messages, maps, traffic maps, and text-based directions. Live Search 411 goes a step beyond simply providing you with business information though - several handy features make this new service really stand out, including:

  • The ability to connect to any business listing you find for free
  • Receive SMS links to maps, driving directions and traffic conditions (just say "text me the info")
  • Get movie showtimes and even buy tickets over the phone (via a partnership with Fandango)
  • Share text messages of business details with friends so they can easily meet you there
  • Hear the current weather conditions and the forecast
  • Quickly access travel resources like airlines, hotels, and rental cars
  • Remember your personalized locations for movie theaters, weather and traffic, and your preferences for receiving text messages.

Learn more at: http://www.livesearch411.com

Tags: , ,

New release of Virtual Earth

Posted By: Laura Foy | Oct 22nd, 2007 @ 1:22 PM
This application just keeps getting better and better. My favorite part about this, is the 3D modeling feature in the authoring section. I love the way the tools we use to make our lives easier are more and more turning into mini-games. Besides that they've done a seamless blend of 3D imagery with Live Search. There's a ton more stuff to help you learn things and get from point A to point B in style. Take a look.
Tags: , , ,

Live Search for Windows Mobile

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Oct 19th, 2007 @ 12:17 PM
A must-have for Windows Mobile users is the Live Search app for mobile devices. If you need to search for a place, get directions, or find what else is in the area, Live Search for Windows Mobile can really be a lifesaver. After installation, to use Live Search, you just click on the Live Search icon from the device's Start Menu, and the application launches. From the main screen, you can easily navigate to select the city of your choice by drilling down by geographic region and alphabetical listings. To find a business or category, you enter in the information you need to find in the search box and your results will display on a map. You can use the routing feature to get directions from point A to point B, and, in major cities, you can even see what traffic is like on your selected route. Roadblocks and delays get highlighted in red, letting you know if you need to plan an earlier departure to reach your destination in time.

Using a compatible Bluetooth GPS receiver, you can view your location on the map in real-time. If you're in a particular area and are looking for things to do, you can use the Live Search tool to find nearby restaurants, shopping & services, transportation, nightlife, and more. After choosing a particular selection from this menu, you can zoom in, get directions, save to your contacts, or SMS the location to a friend. To get the application, download Live Search from http://ls.windowsmobile.com using your device's browser.
Tags: , , ,

New Features in Live Search Maps

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Oct 11th, 2007 @ 1:04 PM
The folks over on LiveSide have announced some coming changes to the popular online mapping service, Live Search Maps. To begin, the two search boxes have been combined into one box and moved over to the left with the links to search Businesses, People, Collections, and Locations below it. The links to the Welcome page, Directions, Collections, Notes, Share, and PrintAs have moved as well, now over towards the top-right side of the page. These moves give more room to the map itself as the header is no longer getting in the way.

Another major improvement that I am really looking forward to is the new ability to compress either the beginning or end of a set of driving directions. For example, although I need to make 4 turns to get on the highway from my house, I do not need those turns spelled out for me when I'm getting directions from point A to point B. This feature will let me condense that into one step as opposed to showing turn-by-turn directions for each of those steps. Not only does this make the directions easier to read at a glance while driving, it has the added "green" benefit of conserving paper.

Next up is the "1-click directions" feature. If you are providing directions to others when you are hosting an event, the attendees will be coming from multiple starting points. The 1-click directions feature will show directions to the endpoint from the North, South, East, and West. These major routes are shown as well as alternative routes coming from the same direction, if there are multiple ways to arrive. Another good use of this feature is providing directions to your customers to help them locate your business.

Finally, other improvements include the ability to re-route directions to miss bad traffic, icons to the left of the driving directions showing arrows and other symbols for turns and start/endpoints, and bolded text for the turns and street names, making the directions much easier to follow when you're in traffic.
Tags: , ,

Live Search for Celebs

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Oct 8th, 2007 @ 1:41 PM
Want to get all the details on your favorite celebrity? Live Search's Celebrity search results combine top content into a single, interactive answer, providing content from images, video, movies, bios, and more. The celebrity's xRank is also intergrated into the results to provide a measure of popularity. xRank is a fun way to track celebrities' rises and falls in the rankings. Based on the number of searches throughout the day, xRank gives a numerical rating for the most popular of Hollywood heavyweights, radio darlings, trendsetters, athletes, politicians, and other notables.

It's "Hot or Not" for search results. On the Celebrity xRank page, you can not only do searches for celebrities, but you can also scan the rankings, read bios, track trends, and see related celebs (the celebrity's friends, family, co-workers, enemies, and romantic interests). Icons next to a celebrity's name show whether the celebrity is Trending up - popularity is increasing (green up arrow), slipping down - popularity is decreasing (red down arrow), rocketing up - popularity is soaring (green up arrow with flames), or plummeting down (red down arrow towards a black hole). What do you think of Live Searhc's celebrity search feature? Do a head to head comparison like I did for one of my favorite celebs and compare the results. In my case, I actually preferred Live Search's results. Do you?
Tags: , , ,

Live Image Search advances

Posted By: Larry Larsen | Apr 30th, 2007 @ 2:46 PM
The image search team at Microsoft deserves a day off, the latest release of enhancements really sets Live Search apart from the others. But don't take my word for it, here, try it for yourself. Go ahead and image search "Red Roses" using Live Search, Yahoo! Image Search, and Google Images. I'll wait here.

All the images in the Live Search have been given a uniform size, making it cleaner looking and easier to scan the large number of images. There is an image resize slider to allow you to dynamically control how big the pictures are in the page (mousing over the image results gives you a bigger version and details), and there is a scratchpad where you can drag pictures to hold on to.

One of the biggest things setting Live Search apart from other engines is that the results come back on one page. That's right, scroll down to where you would find the next page link on other search engines. Notice that Live Search just keeps giving you more images to view.

What you may not notice is that the team has sped up the rendering of the page, it now increases the speed of your experience by 44% on average. Another big improvement was in the adult filtering, which uses skin and face detection as well as some shape detection techniques (which leads me to wonder what shapes they are looking for.)

The image search team also greatly enhanced relevance. This is most noticable in searches for things like celebrity pictures. Check out this search of Hillary Duff. Where other image search engines start breaking down into images of Hillary's purse, MTV page graphics, and the layout of the venues she plays, Live Search stays on task, delivering you just the pictures of the celebrity you are looking for. Of course, if you are really interested in Hillary purses, you can always just search for that.
Tags:

Change the world with a search

Posted By: Larry Larsen | Feb 20th, 2007 @ 2:28 PM
We know you want to help change the world, that you'd volunteer to help teach refugee children around world if you weren't busy with that 9 to 5 job. But really, what can one person - perhaps a hemisphere away - do to help? Easy, use this Live Search page.

Through March 31st, Microsoft will make a contribution to ninemillion.org to help support educational programs for refugee youth. So bookmark it, tell your friends, or add the gadget to your Windows Live Space or Live.com.
Tags: ,

Live Search en France

Posted By: Benjamin Gauthey | Oct 4th, 2006 @ 7:45 AM
Laurent Leca, Chef de produit Search – Microsoft France, nous présente les nouveautés apportées par Live Search qui a été lancé quelques jours auparavant en France. Recherche d’images, localisation de vos endroits préférés avec Live Local, votre homepage personnalisable avec www.live.com qui est depuis quelques temps ma home page où sont agrégées toutes mes informations quotidiennes : blogs, météo, jeux…
Tags: , ,

Page Navigation