Live.com == hot

[Topher]

http://www.live.com

I have to say the smart scrolling in web and image search is pretty freakin sweet.

Whether it returns better results than Google or not probably remains to be seen, but I think the interface is much improved over the standard \"get 100,000 results, scroll page by page\" approach.

[Jeff250]

I can't stand using that site because the maximum scroll speed is so slow. As far as I can tell, it just has the same results as msn.com anyways (even the same ads).

Just change Google's preferences so that you get 100 results per page if you're worried about pages.

[Top Gun]

Gotta say I like Google's page separations a helluva lot better; having 200 or so links in a row makes it very easy to lose track of where you are. The scroll speed is extremely slow, as well. Oh, and did I mention the fact that you can't open the search results in tabs in FF? This flashy mess is what MS calls \"competition\" for Google?

[Samuel Dravis]

Yep, I tried it the other day and I was wondering how exactly they thought they were competetion just because they have a flashy interface... :p

[DCrazy]

Whose idea was it to change the scrollbar concept so that the widget is not reflective of your current progress through the result set? I mean you could have the best AJAX code in the world (and actually Live.com's is pretty nice) but when you start redefining UI widgets and removing functionality thus ensuring that your users have no idea where they are in what they are doing you've lost sight of the ultimate goal (and the ultimate reason people use Google): usability.

[Vindicator]

Oh, and did I mention the fact that you can't open the search results in tabs in FF?

I noticed this as well, its especially frustrating when doing an image search.

[fliptw]

Google is probably the most simplistic a useful search engine can get, so MS needed to go flashy.

its not even valid XHTML, nor would that be one of their goals, yet they still put the proper DOCTYPE in.

[Topher]

It is beta, so I imagine things will change before the final thing roles out.

Things I like:
- \"Gadgets\" (mine)
- Easy reorganization of content.
- RSS feeds as gadgets. The mouse over \"more\" feature to get a floating window of the detail of the article is really cool.
- Search for RSS feeds.
- Image search with a real scroll bar.
- Page up/down keys work in web search as does scroll wheel.
- Search macros
- Local search has perspective views (for some areas).
- Ability to save searches on the homepage. I think this is awesome. As you can see in the screen shot, I added a search for \"Saturn\" in the news. So now it updates in realtime with the top 3 searchs for saturn in the news. (By realtime I mean whenever I go to live.com).

Things I don't like:
- \"Slider\" scroll in web search
- Page up/down only work on row at a time in image search.
- Scroll bar in image search is slow.
- Middle click doesn't work as expected in IE7/FF.
- Have to always search web from the homepage, there's no \"image/local/feeds\" links.

So yah, not perfect. I do however find myself visiting a bunch of webpages over and over again during the day, such as SlashDot, DescentBB and various news sites. Live.com lets me put almost all of this onto one page and it was relatively painless.

So to each his own, I liked it, I thought other people might too.

[Top Wop]

Somehow when Google releases a beta it at least halfway works. I've tried the latest beta's that MS has been putting out and they have been pure ★■◆●. Yea I know, its beta blah blah blah, but still.

[Samuel Dravis]

I just use the Google homepage to put everything in one place, just like Live can do. I've used it for months now and it's very satisfactory. I guess MS is not trying to convert me. :p