Microsoft to unveil new search engine next week

Microsoft is expected to unveil its new search engine at next week's All Things Digital technology conference in Carlbad, California.

According to people in the know at the Wall Street Journal which sponsors the conference, the company will present the latest version of its internet search engine. Microsoft expects its search engine to give some competition to Google and snatch some share market from its all powerful competitor.

Microsoft has signed up JWT, a unit of WPP Plc to develop an advertising campaign for Kumo, according to reports.

The Redmond-based giant has been conducting beta testing of its new search engine called Kumo for over a few months now. The search engine supposedly vastly improves on the organization of search results making it much easier for users to find what they are looking for quickly.

According to reports Microsoft has found a way to present search results in category chunks; by way of example if one were searching for a certain type of motorbike, the engine would present results with online discussion forums, videos, classifieds, spare parts retailers etc for that particular model.

According to Microsoft about 40 per cent of search queries go unanswered and 46 per cent of search sessions take more than 20 minutes. Microsoft believes that it is possible to a better and more useful search experience that would help not just search but also accomplish tasks.

Microsoft last July bought Powerset, a San Francisco-based developer of semantic search technology in an estimated $100 million deal. The technology allows the search engine to determine the intent behind each search term and provide more accurate search results.

Meanwhile, according to reports Yahoo is also planning to make a comeback with an improved version of its search engine. The flailing internet portal is giving its search engine a facelift to allow users to better home in on specific data related to their searches by pulling up addresses, images, videos and reviews instead of just a jumble listing of links.

It would also be interesting to see whether a search partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft could still be revived after Microsoft's overtures for $45 billion buy out were rebuffed by Yahoo last year.

According to industry sources the two companies may still be able to strike some sort of a deal over search and advertising with Yahoo handing over tech secrets to Microsoft for a sum and a percentage of ad profits.

They add that though this might not make such a great deal, considering Google's 64.2 per cent share of internet search market, Yahoo with its 20.4 per cent and Microsoft with a paltry 8.2 per cent might just agree to jointly shake up the market a bit.