Microsoft promise to beat Google on search

Microsoft EU president says it will be better than Google in 6 months

1 March 2006 19:26 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Microsoft has said it will introduce a search engine better than Google in 6 months in the United States and Britain.

"What we're saying is that in 6 months' time we'll be more relevant in the US market place than Google", Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told a technology conference held by Reuters in Paris today.

"The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant", he went on to say.

To give it the edge it needs Microsoft is expected to integrate the search engine into the company's widely used communications tools Windows Messenger and Hotmail rather than directly integrated into in its new operating system Windows Vista due out later this year.

"Should we add a Google-like search engine but twice as good hard-core into Windows? Guess what. If we did that, I don't think a company called Google would be very happy", he said.

Holloway said that the promise of Microsoft's search capability is to dig down rather than just return a bunch of urls matching the search enquiry.