Microsoft Announces Windows Live Academic Search |
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Microsoft<R> Corp.
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA, 98052-6399
USA
Press release date: April 12, 2006
New Research Tool Delivers Enhanced Search Capabilities to the Academic Community
REDMOND, Wash., April 12 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced the beta release of its Windows Live(TM) Academic Search service in seven countries. The new search service is designed to help students, researchers and university faculty conduct research across a spectrum of academic journals. The program is a cooperative effort between Windows Live Search, industry association CrossRef and more than 10 leading publishers. The initial beta release will target the subjects of computer science, electrical engineering and physics, and the company is working with multiple organizations to bring new subjects online in the near future. Windows Live Academic Search will offer peer-reviewed content from leading scholarly societies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and leading publishers Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons Inc. Windows Live Academic Search can be found at http://academic.live.com/ and will provide English-language results in select global markets.
"We are excited about continuing to innovate for the academic community," said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Windows Live Premium Search. "By working with academic publishers and customers and understanding their needs, we have been able to create a unique offering to the marketplace that is a win-win for consumers and our content providers. Windows Live Academic Search is another example of our continued efforts to bring innovative search offerings into new categories. We are looking forward to hearing from our customers during this beta period, which will help us improve upon what is available today."
The Windows Live Academic Search beta is designed to enable consumers to search through thousands of academic journals, serving as a powerful research aid. Key innovations in the user interface and sorting functionality have been designed to help consumers find information faster and truly give them an advantage in their research efforts. Key user features include these:o A preview pane, which allows customers to see the abstract of a result quickly by simply hovering their mouse over the resulto The ability to group and sort results by author, journal, conference and date rather than just looking at a flat list of search resultso Citation support in two major bibliographic formats, which enables customers to quickly compile citationso Author "live links" that will automatically connect to the search results of articles associated with a particular author by simply clicking on the hyperlink of the author's nameo A detail slider, which allows consumers to control the amount of information they see in the search resultso Direct links to publishers' published version, which allows customers to seamlessly access the full text of the article if they are on the network of the institution that subscribes to the full texto Support for macros, which allow customers to more finely tune their search results, and RSS so that consumers can be alerted when new information on a topic or author that they care about becomes available, which can be added to a customer's Live.com page, will be coming in the following weeks.
"We're really pleased to be collaborating with Microsoft on an academic search tool that is designed both to improve the online research experience and to respect the concerns of the publishing industry," said Amy Brand, director of Business Development at CrossRef. "And we look forward to helping bring even more content into Microsoft Academic Search as the initiative develops." CrossRef is a not-for-profit organization that collaborates with publishers to make reference linking efficient and reliable throughout online scholarly literature.
Other organizations working with Microsoft on the Windows Live Academic Search tool include the IEEE, the ACM, Taylor & Francis Group, the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, Ex Libris Group, TDNet, Blackwell Publishing, Elsevier, Nature Publishing Group, the British Library, OCLC Online Computer Library Center and John Wiley & Sons Inc.
The beta service will be available today with English versions in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia. Additional markets and content will be added throughout the beta period.
About MSN and Windows Live
MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com/ . Windows Live is available at http://www.live.com/ . MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/ . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Source: Microsoft Corp.
CONTACT: Rapid Response Team of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, +1-503-443-7070, or rrt@waggeneredstrom.com, for Microsoft
Web site: http://microsoft.com/
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