Microsoft has quietly begun dropping the Yahoo-powered search engine and index at MSN.com in favor of its still-in-beta homegrown MSN Search tool for a large number of users.
Starting earlier this week, users of various search industry message forums, including the ones at SearchEngineWatch.com, reported that they were seeing results drawn from Microsoft's own technology when using the MSN Search site or the search box at the top of MSN.com, Microsoft's primary consumer portal. By Friday, virtually all the posters claimed that they were directed to the beta of MSN Search when using either the direct URL or MSN.com. (Additional independent tests revealed the same experience Friday.)
For a while, however, it was unclear whether Microsoft had actually thrown the switch and dumped Yahoo altogether, or if it was only more of the same testing that Microsoft announced on Jan. 8.
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