Microsoft Launches Challenge to Google Scholar
Walaika K. Haskins,
newsfactor.com
Wed Apr 12, 8:02 PM ET



Almost everybody knows the pain of conducting academic research in a library until the wee hours of the morning. But those late-night sessions might be a thing of the past thanks to the release on Wednesday of Microsoft's latest search service, called Windows Live Academic Search (WLAS).

Designed to aid students, faculty, and other researchers in conducting searches for obscure information, the new service is a cooperative effort between Windows Live Search, industry association CrossRef, and more than 10 top academic publishers.

Initially, the beta release, available in seven countries, offers searches on subjects ranging from computer science and electrical engineering to physics and astronomy.

Content offerings include peer-reviewed articles from leading scholarly societies such as the ACM and the IEEE, as well as publishers Reed Elsevier and Wiley.

Beta Now

While the service is now live with the initial set of offerings, Microsoft is working with a slew of publishers to increase the number of subjects searchable as quickly as possible.

"Windows Live Academic Search is another example of our continued efforts to bring innovative search offerings into new categories," said Danielle Tiedt, general manager of Windows Live Premium Search.

"We are looking forward to hearing from our customers during the beta period," she said, "which will help us improve upon what is available today."

The beta launch of WLAS follows the release of Google Scholar in November 2005. The two services, however, are not carbon copies, with each providing slightly different options for researchers.

Search Details

After users conduct a search, WLAS creates a preview pane that shows an abstract from the related books and articles. In addition, WLAS displays several controls to sort research on the basis of relevance, author, journal, conference, and date of publication.

WLAS also offers tools to take the stress out of writing citations for research projects. With its built-in Citation Export tool, users can export citations in BibTex or EndNote formats -- all with just the click of a button.

Other functionality includes a detail slider that gives users control over the amount of information included in the results page. The service also supports macros that users can program to help quickly refine search results.

In addition, there is a customizable Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed so users can receive alerts when new information on their topic of choice becomes available.

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