Microsoft Offers Alternative to Google Scholar: Windows Live Academic Search

by Barbara Quint 

A new workforce has just signed on to help in the enormous job of rounding up scholarly content on the Web. Microsoft has launched a test version of Windows Live Academic Search on its Live.com Web site (http://academic.live.com). The new search tool will search proprietary content from scholarly publishers, as well as the open Web. The initial beta test offers content from 10 publishers; two more are on the way. Phase one of the beta concentrates on three subject areas: computer science, electrical engineering, and physics. A handsome interface offers users a polished approach to searching built around structured metadata supplied by publishers plus retrieval drawing on full-text spidering. Ironically, in the course of extensive interviewing, the two people who spoke most enthusiastically about the arrival of Microsoft into the academic/scientific "search space" were Anurag Acharya, the man behind Google Scholar, and Sharon Mombru, the woman running Scirus, Elsevier's free sci-tech search engine. Although Microsoft representatives have been quoted as denying any "monetization" plans for the new service, I notice that the Web listings—in contrast with published sources—carry "Sponsored Links" advertising. [Readmore]