WebSpawner.com Blog

Microsoft’s Windows Live Search has recently added a fun new twist to searching the internet with its Live Search Club.

This free service allows members to play online games including Seekadoo, Dingbats, Flexicon, and Chicktionary, among others. To find clues and answer questions in the games, players conduct searches through the MSN Live Search engine, conveniently provided within the game window.

Each completed game earns the player “Ticket” points, which can be redeemed for prizes… but these prizes aren’t stick-on gold stars or junky plastic carnival loot. Available prizes include music downloads, t-shirts, electronic gadgets, computer software and even Xbox 360 consoles and games.

Since the launch of the Live Search Club, MSN has seen its share of the U.S. search market increase noticeably. According to Danny Sullivan’s article at Search Engine Land some metrics show that MSN’s slice of the overall search pie increased almost 5% from May 2007 to June 2007. During the same period, search giant Google’s share dropped a little over 4%, its first decline in some time (yet it still retains more than 62% of the market).

So is the Live Search Club the slingshot that will allow MSN to take down the mighty Goliath Google? Probably not, but it is too early to tell. Regardless, Live Search Club members are likely to enjoy their prizes, and perhaps also likely to start using MSN Live Search as their search engine of choice.

All of us here at WebSpawner were deeply saddened to learn of Monday’s tragic events at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to the entire Virginia Tech community - families and friends of the victims, the more than 25,000 students, the university staff and faculty, the residents of Blacksburg and the responding law enforcement personnel. We wish all of you strength as you grieve and heal.

Ask.com has opened access to a new version of its search called Askx.com. Although all of the search results themselves appear to be the same as their existing offering, Askx.com offers a new three panel approach to searching web sites, images, news and videos:

The slick new interface, devoid of both unneccessary graphic elements and large blocks of advertisement, is easy to use and a breath of fresh air.