Microsoft's Live Search is getting several upgrades rolled out over the next few weeks, and if rumors hold true, this could become an annual event around this time of year.
Microsoft has announced the major updated components, with one of the biggest being that they have increased the number of indexed documents by four times. To help you navigate that much new information, they have also tried to improve the way the engine understands your query and the intent, as well as trying to improve the relevancy of the returns.
One of the biggest changes users will see is the expansion of "Rich Answers". Microsoft has learned from customer feedback that many people just want quick responses to queries such as weather, images, celebrities, entertainment, stocks and so on. With this in mind that have expanded their Answers platform to give you quicker, more specific responses.
Using this same thought process, it seems they will be focusing on improving the vertical search results of shopping, entertainment, health and local info and maps. They will add more channels in future releases, but for now they feel these four verticals are the most popular searches.
Apparently they have also figured out that the name "Live Search" doesn't lend itself to being as exciting as "Google it", so they will be looking at the possibility of rebranding the application.
