Microsoft and Bernardo De Torres

[John Simkin]

Microsoft, after 20 months of development, it launched a new Web-search service on Feb. 1, built from the ground up with homegrown technology. MSN Search, which replaces technology licensed from Yahoo! (YHOO ), is available in 10 languages and includes tools to help Web surfers refine queries for more relevant results. It also taps Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia software to provide direct answers to specific questions.

The search engine is Microsoft's most ambitious effort to elbow its way into a business dominated by Google. According to comScore Networks, which tracks Web traffic, Google led in Web-search volume, accounting for 34.7% of all searches in December, 2004. Yahoo came in second at 31.9%, followed by MSN's 16.3% share.

I thought I would test it out by using the term "Bernardo De Torres". As some of you will remember, this page was removed from the Google index until I made a fuss about it and had it restored as number one (where it still remains). Interestingly, my Bernardo De Torres page is not in the MSN database. However, all the rest of my pages seem to be there. His CIA friends are obviously working for MSN as well as Google.

However, J. Edgar Hoover is not being protected. My page on him comes 1st out of 545,000 at MSN and 2nd out of 636,000 at Google.

[Shanet Clark]

Maybe the microsoft search engine won't participate in the most obvious "slanting and steering" of Google, where three or four 'safe and sanitized' sites always come before the more critical websites.

John, could you give us some numbers on how many visitors read these threads?

How many people who go to Spartacus then continue on to read part of this Forum?

[John Simkin]

One of the benefits of MSN Search is that it claims to trawl the web for new web pages every two days rather than the industry standard of two weeks.

I decided to test this out. I created a new web page on Frank Wisner on Tuesday. However, MSN does not have it in its database. However, Google has it (ranked 4th out of 124,000 – the other three are about a different Frank Wisner but you cannot blame Google for that).

Could it be because my Frank Wisner was the founder of the CIA's covert operations section in 1948?

[John Simkin]

John, could you give us some numbers on how many visitors read these threads?

How many people who go to Spartacus then continue on to read part of this Forum?

You can tell how many people have viewed the different threads by looking at the "views" column.

In January, 246,642 pages were accessed on the Forum.

I can't give accurate figures for the links between Spartacus and the Forum. However, our stats suggest that it is the most likely way that people find the Forum. Spartacus gets about 6,000,000 page impressions per month.

[Shanet Clark]

Thank you for posting material on Frank Wisner and Marshall Carter. They are indicted in the most serious breaches of public faith in American history. Marshall Carter participated in the gravest domestic spying and psychological operations of the 1960s and Frank Wisner was the principle architect of the use of former Nazis in the CIA.

[Terry Mauro]

His CIA friends are obviously working for MSN as well as Google.

...sadly they are most everywhere....BUT as you demonstrated....with enough resolve, perseverence and effort we can often trump them....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...sadly they are most everywhere....BUT as you demonstrated....with enough resolve, perseverence and effort we can often trump them....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But, to what extents will they go in order to bring down a site, such as this one?

I ask this due to the problems John has experienced regarding the incidences he was subjected to last summer, and following close upon that, in September. What other tricks of the trade will they decide to employ against the website itself, as well as the possibility of targetting any of its subscribers, or membership database?

Thanks for your comments.