Microsoft may be on the right track with the next incarnation of Live Search, for the time being called the Kumo search engine. Kumo does, for instance, copy some of Ask.com’s best features, features Ask has — alas — abandoned.

Ask.com used to have one of the most innovative search engines user interface wise, which made it one of our favorites in 2007.

When Ask got it right

The search engine result pages were elegant.

Regular search results filled the central column. A narrow right hand column presented relevant images, an introduction to a Wikipedia article, and blog, maps and video search results — even time zone info when relevant.

The left hand column included — besides the search form — listings of alternative search queries that might narrow or widen your search results.

Then something changed. It might have been caused by new managers believing the simplicity of Google worked better. They may even have been backed up by usability studies, for all we know.

Still, the recent addition of frames to search engine result pages makes another hypothesis more likely: Ask.com may have mlost it, even if they had removed the frameset the last time we looked.

Microsoft changes tactics

Enter Microsoft, a search company in search of its soul.

Microsoft has (finally!) understood that the present Live Search is a dead end: bland, boring and unimaginative, even though the search results are far from bad.

Microsoft is now testing its new search tool, for the time being called Kumo.

Kumo is only for Microsoft employees for the time being, but it is clear that the launch of the next Microsoft Search will be this spring.

Kumo has a zen quality to it

Leaked screenshots of the new Kumo shows a clean and aesthetically pleasing search engine result page, quite similar to the 2007 Ask.com pages.

There is a dark bar at the top of the screen that includes links to various Microsoft services.

The search results are clearly topic specific, meaning that Kumo gives you different result page compositions to different types of information.

The screenshot shows a search for a music artist, and Kumo shows groupings of alternative search result clusters at the top of the left hand column: images, songs, lyrics etc. Clusty has done this for quite a while, but there is nothing wrong in copying a good idea.

Below the search results clusters there is a list of related search queries (found in the right hand column in the present Live Search and Ask.com) and a link to relevant links from your search history.

The history section is a great idea, as most of us find ourselves searching for the same thing over and over again. Getting a link to the site we found so interesting the last time will be useful.

Universal Search with a twist

This Kumo test engine does, like all the big search engines at the moment, mix various types of search results on one page. Google calls this Universal Search.

On this page the various types of information are neatly grouped into sections, each section presenting one type of results, in this case regular web results, songs, lyrics, biography, music, albums and top videos (with videos visible at the bottom of the search result page).

The Live Search blog has a screenshot for another Kumo search: for a Bose stereo. In that case Kumo sections the search engine result page into categories like web, reviews and manuals. That makes sense to us.

Normally users click on one of the very first listings, but if they get used to this interface they will be more likely to scan the whole page for results.

The right hand column is for text ads. They are clearly marked as such, but also very visible, enticing users to click on them.

Kumo may be a winner

You know what? We believe Microsoft maybe onto something.

It might be that the interface will not survive the internal testing and that they will end up with something more bland.

Still, the fact that the designers have been allowed to go this far tells us that a new breed of “intrapreneurs” has got the upper hand at Microsoft Search. The fact that they are also developing another and even more radical search interface called Viveri, supports this.

That bodes well for search engine innovation in general. A strong Microsoft in search will also force the others, including Google, to focus even more keenly on innovation.

Now, Ask.com may tell you a different story. They may tell you that the best search engine interface in the world did not give them a bigger slice of the search market, which is exactly why they ended up with something much similar to the present Live Search.

It could be that the regular Joe is not as interested in radical search interfaces as Pandia. In other worlds: it is better to be safe than sorry.

That might be, but Microsoft has more clout than Ask, even if it is small on search compared to Google, and neither Ask nor Microsoft can beat Google by doing exactly the same as Google.

Go to CNET for a larger version of the screenshot.

See also: Microsoft to rename Live Search?

photo credit: oddsock