There is speculation that the new MSN search will be going live before the date of July 1st, 2005. This comes by way of a post by "msndude", supposedly a MSN official representative at WebmasterWorld in message # 8 in this thread posted on Sept. 19th.
The message read; "We have stated publicly that we will release our own algorithmic search engine within one year of our Technology Preview which launched July 1st, 2004."
This topic is now being discussed at WebmasterWorld.
