When you conduct a search with MSN Search, the search results page (like the
one shown in Figure 2-5) includes four different types of results. At the very top
of the page is a listing of Popular Topics that you can use to help refine your
search. Next up is a short list of Featured Sites, followed by a longer list of Web
Directory Sites, and then the much longer list of Web Pages. The sum total of all
these results provides a “best of all worlds” search, unique among the major
search sites; you get a blend of high-quality human-edited directory listings
and high-volume automated search index listings.
So how do the four different types of search results differ? Read on to learn this
secret behind the search.

There’s actually a fifth category of results that pop up from time to time—
Sponsored Sites. These listings are paid for by advertisers and are pro­
grammed to appear when certain keywords are entered into a search query.



Popular Topics :

The Popular Topics listings at the top of the search results page are searches
related to your query, ideally designed to help you narrow down your results.
Click one of these links to start a new search and display a new search results
page.


Featured Sites :
Featured Sites are sites that are manually assembled by MSN’s team of editors.
MSN’s editors monitor the most popular searches being performed with MSN
Search and hand-pick sites they believe to be most relevant to these searches.
Those sites appear in the Featured Sites section.
Note that the Featured Sites section won’t appear on all search results pages;
the more obscure your query, the less likely that MSN’s editors have researched
the topic. In addition, MSN will sometimes use this section to provide links to
articles in the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia, related MSNBC news articles, or
related MSN content.


Web Directory Sites :
The next big section on the search results page isWeb Directory Sites. These
results come from the LookSmart directory, which (like the Yahoo! Directory) is
a hand-picked listing of the best sites on the Web. These are quality results that
are definitely worth checking out.


Microsoft has announced that it’s not renewing its deal with LookSmart,
which means that LookSmart directory results are here for the short term
only. Expect the LookSmart results to be replaced by results from Microsoft’s
soon-to-be-announced proprietary search tool.



Web Pages :
The bulk of MSN’s search results fall into the Web Pages category. These results
derive from the Inktomi search index, which lists three billion Web pages. You
can compare Inktomi results to those from Google, which uses similar software-
driven search technology.





While MSN currently uses Inktomi for its search index, that might not be a
long-term relationship. Sources say that Microsoft is developing its own pro­
prietary search technology. When the time is right, expect Inktomi to be
kicked out in favor of Microsoft’s home-grown search results—especially
because Inktomi is now owned by Yahoo!, Microsoft’s chief portal rival.