Another reason why MSN Search is failing

I casually use MSN Search - now Live.com search - for two main reasons:

Firstly, I report ranking positions for clients on MSN.

Secondly, I think the potential integration of MSN search with Windows users offers an exciting opportunitity for Microsoft to gain new users of its search business.

But…Microsoft are setting up unnecessary barriers for users.

The user search experience should be as simple and uncomplicated as possible, and where the search experience isn;t satisfying, users should be invited to make changes as they wish.

Problem 1: Live.com no longer allows casual surfers to modify preferences. Even with cookies. You need to set up a Live account simply to decide which language preferences and numbers of results returned. Immediately, they’ve thrown up a barrier against the user experience, which isn;t going to help draw in users.

Problem 2: There used to be search.MSN.co.uk. Now it’s simply Live.com. There is no UK option until *after* you begin a search. So Microsoft again are killing user options and making the entire search experience more complicated than it needs to be.

Overall, Microsoft are taking a totally wrong approach with regards to how they approach the user-experience on Live.com search. They are making fundamental errors that surely no basic marketer would recommend.

As ever, with many large corporates - and especially Microsoft - it seems that initial ideals are simply being watered down to the point that there no longer remains a great product - just a product.