It's similar to this behviour you reported on last year:

http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2005-11-01.html#n38

Ah, thanks. I tried to locate older posts on this subject but you were more successful :)

still, it's the first time the search results in the USA have been changed.

Try searching for google.com or google on msn.com.
you get something like this."Want to search the Web? Try MSN Search." And a search box. So they both are doing this.

Searching for yahoo and msn on google yields a description of the sites followed by the navigation links that were noted here recently. Strangely, searhing for google on google doesn't provide navigation links.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=yahoo

Anyone know where they are getting the site summaries/descriptions from?

It's actually pretty clever. If you check the AOL 500k (yes, I love it and I am addicted) you can see how many people are entering urls in the search box (maybe Google, AOL and such should stop to put a q.focus(); on load)

BTW, you don't even need the [.com] part of the search phrase for these to work.

Niraj: It seems to use the link text from your site, but I've never found out how they select them or whether this is just done manually.

Yahoo Team Meeting

Man 1: Hey, I found a way to f*** with our user's head to increase traffic!
Man 2: Cool, implement it.

MSN Team Meeting

Man 1: Hey, Yahoo is doing something *really* smart to keep traffic...

<< maybe Google, AOL and such should stop to put a q.focus(); on load >>

The referral logs for the websites I manage are full of people searching for the websites' URLs.

Maybe the 1st thing new Internet users should be taught is where their address bar is in their browser! I've seen so many people do this intentionally when they want to go to a specific website. ..

Tony, I agree about not knowing how the navigation links are being obtained, but I was referring to the short site description that also appears. These descriptions don't appear to be from the actual site being linked. (Things like "newly renamed" and "is a major portal" seem to be third party descriptors, and googling shows many other sites have the exact same descriptions for sites like yahoo, leading me to believe they are coming from some 3rd party source)

Aha – I understand now – those are from the ODP / DMOZ: http://www.dmoz.org

>Man 1: Hey, Yahoo is doing something *really* smart to keep traffic...

that's not really how it happened ;-)

I decided to try for myself entering in "Google" at msn.com, sure enough the one box with the message "try msn search came up". The same result occured when I entered "Yahoo" into msn.com. Then for shits and giggles, I decided to try out msn.com in msn.com. Checkout the picture (specifically the sponsored ads)

http://picasaweb.google.com/topdawgnate/Web/photo#4961682415969173522

I think this really shows you where MSN search results rank :D

>http://picasaweb.google.com/topdawgnate/Web/photo#4961682415969173522
>
>I think this really shows you where MSN search results rank :D

Not only the first sponsored link... The second one is suggestive, too! ;)

The second one is by far my favorite :D

type msn.com into yahoo and you don't get the same response as typing google.com

NateDawg, thanks for noticing this. I let people know and it has now been removed.

Fagan, your welcome

just checked msn and the entire onebox is now gone :)

my little quibble: onebox is what google calls their editorial content placed above search results. "instant answers" is the MSN equivalent name. however this was ads, something entirely different

Happy to report that a search for Google at Ask.com offers a bunch of links to NOT ONLY the main web interface but to Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Images. We also offer the Wikipedia company history, and current stock price.
See: http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=2102&o=333&l=dir&q=google

Btw, users of the Ask.com blog/feed engine can quickly subscribe to blogs using Google Reader, My Yahoo, Newsgator and Bloglines. You can also post directly to Blogger blogs, digg, and del.icio.us.
Example:
http://www.ask.com/blogsearch?q=heathrow&t=a&qsrc=2102&o=333&l=dir

Always quick on the submit button. Apologies

I failed to mention Ask.com does the same thing for Yahoo and MSN (not only search).

See:
http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=2102&o=333&l=dir&q=yahoo
http://www.ask.com/web?q=msn+&qsrc=1&o=333&l=dir

Fagan
Thanks for the info, I learned something new. I'll make sure I refer to the editorial conent as "instant answers" for future posts :)

gary price
I've been pretty impressed with the site redesign for Ask. I've been using it for the NBC National Treasure contest and I've noticed that it has a comfortable feel to it. (ps. the monkey comercial during the show is pretty funny)

Btw, Ask calls them Smart Answers.
Check out our new recipe "smart answer." (-: Happy cooking!
http://www.ask.com/web?q=bbq+recipes&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir

Wow, that beef skewer reciept looks great right now :D Thanks for the tip. I'm going to have to bookmark that :)

it's funny how it shows up the textbox for the keyword "google" and not for "web search"