Microsoft's search engine is due to appear on MSN tomorrow, Thursday, according to an awful lot of anonymous sources. The New York Times heard from "a person knowledgeable about the announcement" while Reuters made do with "sources close to the company".

All agreed that the search engine has only one target - Google. Details on how exactly it will beat Google are less clear at this stage. Search engine users before Google did not show much loyalty. But since its arrival Google has managed to keep hold of its market share despite the best efforts of Yahoo! and others. Users have an affection for Google they don't show for many other sites or services on the web.

Microsoft is working on a search engine which will do a better job of checking through a PC's hard drive and this is also due before the end of the year. Google launched its version - Desktop Search - last month.

SearchEngineWatch.com has a discussion of the launch in its forum here. A version of the search engine has been accessible for some time through Microsoft's sandbox site here. ®

Related stories

Google passes on portal
Google launches desktop search for Windows PCs
MSN search guru 'stole AltaVista code'