According to Dr. Gary William Flake’s “Live Labs Manifesto,” the Internet operates in a manner fundamentally unlike anything that has ever preceded it. It is a world where “something small and intangible – a better algorithm – can massively increase global utility and welfare.”

Microsoft Live Labs is a partnership between MSN and Microsoft Research that takes a holistic approach toward applied research for Internet-enabled products and services. The partnership brings together people with a variety of skills and perspectives to foster research programs, incubate entirely new inventions, and improve and accelerate new Web-based technologies.

This week Flake – head of Live Labs and a Microsoft technical fellow – and his team are announcing 12 winners of a new Live Labs request for proposals (RFP) entitled “Accelerated Search for Academic Research.” The RFP aims to identify bold, innovative and new approaches to information retrieval, data mining, machine learning and human/computer interactions, with the ultimate goal of creating new technologies that can drastically change the way we interact with the Web and its vast array of resources.