Mike Temporale
07-02-2004, 12:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://features.engadget.com/entry/9423298118686276/' target='_blank'>http://features.engadget.com/entry/9423298118686276/</a><br /><br /></div>Microsoft has released a preview or beta version of their new search engine which is aimed directly at taking some steam out of Google's whistle. It's a scaled down interface, with-out the advertisements, and mobile device friendly. Or is it?<br /><br />Engadget tested the new search using a Pocket PC, so I felt it was only right to test it out on my Smartphone. :D The search home page is pretty straight forward. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MsnSearchScreen1.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />The results, however, are a little disappointing. My simple search returned 2 pages of 15 items. That's no big deal. The problem is that the result pages scroll horizontally. This is a big no-no for any mobile HTML page. I dislike it when it happens on my desktop, let alone my Smartphone. When the page loads, the screen is already off center, I have already scrolled the page left before taking this screen capture.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MsnSearchScreen2.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />The search results seem fine. I'm disappointed that Microsoft failed to take the Smartphone into account when they built these pages. It is an early release, so there is an off chance that this will change, but I wouldn't count on it.