Andrew Goodman thinks that Microsoft's renewed entry into the search engine wars today is hardly news. Why? Because the word has been out there for awhile. He writes...
Let's review the progress of this "news" story:
* Many search enthusiasts have already tried out the preview version of the product
* Anonymous Microsoft supporters (their IP addresses resolve to a subterranean facility near Dayton, Ohio) have posted comments on this blog for several months of the "look out baby, here it comes!" variety.
* Research expert Gary Price stumbled on a page he evidently wasn't supposed to see, displaying advanced features such as "personalization sliders" that seem to outgun Google's beta personalization. This is a topic we've reported on previously in this space. The page was quickly removed. Will such advanced features be public yet? Or ever?
* Today's news is telling us that there will be news about this tomorrow. As with most other things Microsoft, when Microsoft's new search engine launches, it won't be news. The question is, will it be any good? Will it be disruptive? Or just good enough? And most importantly: will you use it?
While these are all good points, Andrew fails to recognize that anytime there's a burp out of Redmond it's news. Maybe this would have not been a newsy event for a smaller company, but because it was Microsoft and it impacts so many people everyone is pretty much forced to write about it...or feel left out.
