News June 23, 2005
What good is a search engine if the
results it provides aren't relevant
to the query being performed? The
answer? Not much. The largest search
index in the world doesn't amount to
much if you don't have an algorithm
that can successfully provide
results related to the question
being posed.
Editor's Note:
Recently, MSN Search announced they
would be integrating a new method
for determining result relevance. In
fact, the developers said they were
obsessed with providing the most
relevant results they can. Whenever
a new algorithm is introduced, it
changes how sites get ranked. Have
any of you noticed anything
different about MSN Search since
they introduced the Neural Net?
Discuss at
WebProWorld.
Because relevance is such an
important characteristic, many who
study the industry
conduct tests to find out which
engine is the most relevant and
surveys to discover what people
consider relevant when it comes to
search results.
 Evidently,
the commitment to relevance is also
of great importance to the
developers at MSN Search, who
recently began using a new method to
determine relevance within their
search results called the Neural
Net. According to Barry at
SERoundtable, the Neural Net
technology is based on RankNet, a
method of relevance ranking being
researched by the MSN team.
Findory.com founder
Gary Linden came across MSN's
research white paper (pdf)
discussing this method of
determining relevance. The
technology is based on the following
premise:
We investigate using gradient
descent methods for learning ranking
functions… and we introduce RankNet,
an implementation of these ideas
using a neural network to model the
underlying ranking function.
This pretty much confuses everyone
else as much as it does me. Even
Danny Sullivan had a great time
deciphering their white paper: "I'd
love to give you a one sentence
summary of what it does, but so far,
that escapes me despite reading the
paper several times."
Danny also feels the RankNet system
"recognizes" what is a good result
and what is not and ranks them
accordingly. He also admits that
this line of thinking may come from
him misunderstanding their
pdf.
While the white paper is quite
dense, their use of the Neural Net
has already paid dividends, at least
in Japanese field tests and other
examples provided on the
MSN Search blog. Although they
do not provide in-depth details
about their technology, the post
does say the developers at MSN
Search are obsessed about relevance
and the Neural Net technology should
be an indication they are committed
to improving the user experience.
To illustrate their technology in
action, the blog entry explains how
queries about PBS evolution videos
have seen relevance improvements in
a measurable way. Before they
integrated their Neural Net, the
first position result was not
completely relevant to the search
(i.e., PBS did not have the top spot
as it should). However, since the
integration, the PBS website now
holds the first position for the
query in question.
 Not
only has MSN Search made strides to
improve their result relevance,
they've also introduced some new
search commands that will assist
users on refining their searches.
According to their blog entry, the
following commands have been added
(complete with descriptions
explaining how they work):
FileType: one of the most
asked for operators, which restricts
documents to a particular filetype.
InAnchor:, InURL:, InTitle:, and
InBody: available to find
keywords in a particular part of the
document, or in anchor text pointing
to a document.
Augmented the Link: keyword
that finds documents that link to a
particular page with
LinkDomain:<domain>, which finds
documents that point to any page in
a domain.
Contains: returns documents
that contain hyperlinks to documents
with a particular file extension
(contains:wma returns documents that
contain a link to a WMA file).
With their commitment to search
relevance and the ability for users
to refine their searches using a
number of search commands, it
certainly appears as if MSN Search
is committed to providing as
complete a search experience as
possible. Does this new relevance
algorithm affect how site owners
will approach optimizing their work
for MSN Search? When you consider
the fact that the MSN Search results
will inevitably be altered and
rankings will be changed, perhaps it
will. Although, exactly which SEO
measures can be taken, besides
ensuring your site content is
relevant to your targeted keywords,
is uncertain.
It's probably wise to give the new
ranking algorithm some time to take
hold first.
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