M3 Sweatt

Eytan blogged that Microsoft.com Search is now powered by MSN Search. This means that when you go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and look at the search bar in the upper right, MSN Search technology is used to search the site. As he notes, the prognosis is good and the impact has been positive. In my own searches, I found that the quality of searches has improved and that returned results are much more relevant: regularly dogfooding MSN Search, relevance has increase dramatically over the last six months.

I also like the fact that the team has implemented the feedback loop from MSN Search at the bottom of each search…

Have a problem or suggestion? Tell us about it.

This link to the customer feedback page is quite powerful, allowing Microsoft to collect your feedback on specific queries and other comments. The feedback is used by MSN Search to improve relevance, and the group that manages Microsoft.Com will use the data to improve the site and search.

These teams rolled out improvements to our sites and search tools over the last several months. They regularly incorporate the voice of the customer in just about everything they do, and are truly focused on improving the customer experience of our web properties. When you consider the sheer number of pages linked off of the main web site for the company, you start to appreciate the enormity of the challenge. 

Tags: microsoft, customer satisfaction, MSN Search.

If you are a Microsoft hardware partner, you may already know that registration is now open for WinHEC 2006, May 23-25, 2006, in Seattle. The theme this year is “Advancing The Platform,” and with Windows Vista launching later this year, this will be a great chance to learn more about the core OS architecture.

If you’ve attended a WinHEC in the past, you know that this is one of the technical events to attend, as many representatives from across the Microsoft product teams attend the sessions. And if you can’t make it in person, after the conference you’ll find (as is available from WinHEC 2005) many of the presentations, Bill Gates’ keynote and audio recordings of the sessions posted online.

When I find a great book I either send people a review and link to the book. Sometimes I’ve gone as far as to buy a copy and ciculate it around to people I think would find it of interest.

This is one I’m buying in bulk.

SATISFACTION: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer by James (J D) Power and Chris Denove should be standard primer for everyone interacting with a customer or partner. Period.

Bill Gates’ live kenote webcast is on now, straight from the RSA conference in San Jose. (This and other webcasts from him can be found here.)

Steve Ballmer’s webcast keynote from the 3GSM conference in Barcelona is available on line now. I wasn’t up for this one, so having access to the time-shifted video is great.

Tags: RSA 2006, webcasts, smartphones, mobile phones, 3GSM.

So even if I can’t be in Barcelona for 3GSM, I have resolved to read the PR feeds.

From the Microsoft 3GSM Virtual Pressroom today Microsoft announced that there will soon be Windows Mobile-Based Smartphones running on low-cost processors. In this case, it’s TI’s OMAPV1030 EDGE chipset: from the PR…

“These phones will be based on a lower-cost, high-performance chipset architecture for Windows Mobile device-makers, previously only available for feature phones. Until now, many smartphones running on a high-level operating system such as Microsoft® Windows Mobile necessitated a more expensive dual-core chipset to power the rich user interface, data networking and additional personal and business applications.”

Even better: “Availability of these handsets is expected within 12 months.”

Tags: Windows Mobile, omapv1030, smartphones, mobile phones, 3GSM.