MSN said that its new search, located at beta.search.msn.com, was different because it could answer plain-language questions such as "What is the capital of Turkey", and receive a direct answer, "Ankara", delivered by the Microsoft Encarta encyclopaedia.
It has also introduced a new Search Near Me feature to help users find information and resources that are close to their homes. It also allows searches for news and images and, when people type in the name of a recording artist, song or album, they will get linked directly to content from MSN Music, where it can be bought.
However, when tried at 8.30 GMT this morning, the site appeared to be running very slowly, and at times a message said that it was not available at all. Searching the news section on Yasser Arafat brings up an MSNBC story first, and offers 3,789 results. The same search on Google news offers 46,700 stories.
The new MSN seach is slated to launch early next year. Its search is currently provided by Yahoo!, which has also been stepping up its offering in the face of Google's dominance in the search market.
Google has hit back by expanding its reach to include a free email service, Gmail, a shopping comparison site, Froogle, and new searches such as a book search. In response, Yahoo! and MSN have each improved their free email services.
While search was once just a way of drawing users to their websites, it is now worth big bucks, with revenue from sponsored searches and programmes such as Google's AdWords now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yusef Mehdi, corporate vice-president of MSN Information Services at Microsoft, said: "The release of our beta is a huge step toward delivering the information consumers are looking for online, faster than previous versions of MSN Search.
"With better results and more powerful search tools, MSN Search is creating a new, higher standard for online search -- one that helps consumers find the information they need, when they need it."
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