Yesterday, Lamar Advertising rolled out a billboard that read “Follow Ashton Kutcher” with a link underneath to Ashton’s profile page.

This was put on 1,133 digital billboards within hours of request. This is to be running for a hours even after Oprah Winfrey plugs her new Twitter account on her talk show.

The time is 10:20am Sydney, Australia.

The above image is the error message I get as I try to login on Twitter. It attempts to go to twitter.com/sessions but says that The page doesn’t exists.

Upgrades?

Let’s face it, Live Search hasn’t really done well in the grand scheme of online search compared to Google and Yahoo.

So the Microsoft guys have decided to test their new product. Codenamed: Kumo, Microsoft has asked their employees to test the new system internally. In fact, the changed their internal DNS to redirect live.com to the new product.

Take a look at some of the screenshots from Kara Swisher’s blog -

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile.gif

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-1.gif

http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2009/03/downloadedfile-2.gif

You can see that Microsoft intends to show your search results in various categories and media types all in the one page first. If you search for a particular product, you can link directly to reviews, specs, manuals and so on. If you’re searching for a music artist, you again see images, links, lyrics, videos et al.

Different? Well sort of, but the question is how many of us will change the norm in the way we search? If I wanted the video for an artist, I would put the keyword video in it. If I wanted lyrics, I would do the same. It’s only a matter of tweaking my search query to get what I specifically want.

The time and cost involved to build Live.com, hiring more engineers to maintain and build new search products sounds pretty high – maybe it’s cheaper to buy Yahoo!?

Oh well, I can only but wish them the best of luck.

Here it the internal memo from Satya Nadella, Senior Vice President of Research & Development for Microsoft’s Online Division.

From: Satya Nadella
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 4:18 PM
To: Microsoft–All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Announcement: Internal Search Test Experience

The Search team needs you. We’ve been working hard to improve our search service and want to share the progress we are making with you. We are launching a new test program called kumo.com for employees to try and provide feedback. Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days. Kumo is the codename we have chosen for the internal test.

In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40% of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46% of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don’t find what they need from search today.

We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you’ll see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions.

Your Next Search…

To get started, visit kumo.com or click one of the samples below to see how it’s possible to find the right results more easily:

· Audi S8
· Taylor Swift
. Bose Lifestyle 48

You can also set your search defaults to test site using the instructions here.

Your Feedback is Critical

As employees, you are some of our most informed users and our toughest critics, and we highly value your input and feedback to help us build a better service. You have been an important voice in our efforts, and the feedback you’ve sent us since the company meeting has been amazing.

When you visit kumo.com, at the bottom right corner of the each page you’ll see a feedback badge. We ask that each time you use the test site, click the feedback badge and take a moment to answer four quick and simple questions. Feel free to reach out to give us extra feedback directly on our blog and by mailing sfeed. For answers to common questions make sure to see our FAQ.

We are committed to rapid innovation and improvement. Please give the test site a try, rate the results and let us know what you think.

Satya