Live.com Beta Breathes Some Life into MSN Search

Lack of innovation and increasing competition from Google and others, have lead Microsoft to release Windows Live Beta. This new version of MSN offers many of the same features you might find as an MSN member, but with a much cleaner interface design and some "desktop widget-like" browserware. Many of the services on Live.com interact with XML to pull everything from email and weather to classified ad listings, such as the ones in Live.com Beta Expo... and yes ... more maps.

Much of Live.com technology can be found on other web portals or other sites, but you have to give Microsoft some credit for taking a step in the right direction with Live.com. Personalized web search and site customization are definitely where the internet is headed. Only time will tell if Live is the answer to Microsoft's software innovation woes and search engine marketing miscues.