MSN Search launched

MSN's been beta-testing its new search service for several months. Now, after taking "suggestions from people who used the test version to improve some functions," its own home-grown search engine is officially launched," E-Commerce Times reports. You'll find it right at the top of MSN.com and on its own page. Improvements include 50% faster results and better answers to questions using Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, according to E-Commerce Times, though MSN says it still needs to work on the "search near me" (local yellow pages-like) feature. The company's main goal is to respond to queries with actual answers, not just Web-pages, ZDNET reports.

Lots of search news these days. Just in: Yahoo's new search-on-the-fly feature, whereby you click on a word or phrase like "Iraq" in a news story and turns up links to related Web pages, CNET reports. Here's last week's search news: "New search perks" and "Answers, pls."