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Microsoft's long-awaited foray into the search engine market is entering its final stages, as today it launched a live test version of the new MSN Search technology.

Until now, Microsoft search was powered by Inktomi's technology, a company that was acquired by Yahoo a couple of years ago.

Factors such as the increased importance of search engines in internet user behaviour; the phenomenal of Google; and the success of various companies in generating revenues from search-related ventures, have caused Microsoft -- just as Yahoo did a few months ago -- to launch its own proprietary search engine.

Unlike Yahoo, however, Microsoft has opted not to mix paid-for results with regular or "organic" results (see article in today's FT) -- an approach also championed by Google. (Microsoft, with desktop software remaining its core business, is less dependent on the revenue streams generated by paid-for listings than Yahoo, while Google finds other ways of displaying paid-for links, but never in its main search results.)

Another feature of Microsoft's new search is that its results are returned rapidly, with a clean page design -- again mimicking features for which Google is famous.

The big question remains, however: will the quality and relevance of MSN's search results rival Google's? Index spam is the search engine's enemy, and it is proliferating.

Early tests indicate that Microsoft has put too much emphasis on the simple use of keywords within elements such as domain names. This may make it a very easy target for spammers.