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Microsoft’s deluded search

Written on
Mar 3, 2009 
Author
Edward Barrera  |
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Microsoft’s deluded search

microsoft_small.jpgADOTAS — I was amazed by a Microsoft memo that stated 40 percent of queries in search engines go unanswered.

Search head Satya Nadella, in a memo about the (ahem) Google killer Kumo, also wrote that half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks and 46 percent of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. “These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don’t find what they need from search today.”

What is he searching for? A way to pump up the troops to use the company’s new search engine? I never have searches that long or find it that difficult to find things, if indeed they exist.

The company has asked employees to test, internally, Kumo, which is supposed to be the long anticipated upgrade to the Live Search. But does Microsoft really think that it can work on the edges and take Google on? If the company plans to truly overtake the search giant, it needs to be either radical or buy Yahoo’s search.

UPDATE: Microsoft tells Silicon Alley that “The data shows exactly what the memo says. These are the raw search logs. It’s not focus group data, it’s look at actual queries that come in.”

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