The dozen or so Microsoft engineers sat quietly as their team-leader pushed the Enter key and released the MSNBot on the web. Programmed to act like GoogleBot, the new MSN search spider is currently scouring the World Wide Web following each and every link it comes across in order to build a bigger database than Google. Microsoft has entered the arena Google built and is obviously going to make life more intense at the Googleplex.

Microsoft's search plan calls for the full integration of search into every component of home and office computer usage. Built to function on the new version of Windows, (currently code-named "Longhorn"), Microsoft VP, Yusuf Medhi claims the new search technology will be wedded to the desktop, blurring the current division between the wider Internet and the files stored on a network or individual's hard drive. Files as diverse as spreadsheets, power point productions and standard HTML files stored a thousand miles away will be accessed from a single search point.

The tactics Microsoft will use to introduce this product are well known and will likely violate anti-trust laws in the United States. Microsoft, which came out far ahead after its last anti-trust run in with the US government, doesn't seem to care. These are the same tactics used to drive Netscape out of the web browser market and into the portal market. There is more money to be made by controlling the Internet than any government could ever level in fines or penalties against Microsoft. Moreover, MS controls so much of the digital landscape that breaking the company up would have untold repercussions on the US and global economy.

Longhorn is scheduled to be released in 2005 but we expect to start seeing signs and symbols of MSN's new search features sooner than later. With the size and distribution power of Microsoft, it won't be long before Google starts to feel threatened and makes some sort of move. It will be interesting to see how they choose to react but we know they need to react fairly soon. Perhaps Microsoft will be kind enough to make Google an offer they simply can't refuse.

Yahoo is growing in another direction again. Yahoo is still one of the largest and most diverse Internet properties around. Following the successful release of its US music portal, "Launch", Yahoo has just unveiled a European music and video portal which will service Internet users in UK and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Recently, Yahoo and British Telecom announced a joint venture, BT-Yahoo! and Yahoo Plus. The head of the entertainment division at Yahoo! Europe, Shannon Ferguson, said that music and videos will be the core service offered by the new portal. "We would like to be the MTV of the online space in terms of allowing labels to promote their new and existing artists through our site," she said.

In the struggle to attract and retain loyal users, music is seen as one of the key components to success. AOL and Lycos have both recently updated their music services and AltaVista has also introduced an MP3 engine that can find MP3s posted on the Net.

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A lot of people are worried about Google these days. Over 4/5 of all the advice Email we receive from our articles at WebProNews and SiteProNews are about Google, often stemming from a recent drop in rankings on Google. Here's a few friendly words of advice about Google's recent results, courtesy of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "DON'T PANIC!" That's easier said than done due to the immense marketing power of a strong ranking at Google. Thing is, nobody really knows where it will all end up at the end of the day. Google is still experimenting with new ranking algorithms and the results being shown are in a constant state of flux. We still have faith in Google's claim that they are currently working out bugs in their new algorithms and will be finished their four-month long update by the end of July.

That said, what should people do now? Our best advice is to do the following things but don't expect instant results. 1) Tighten up your titles and place the strongest keywords forward. 2) Do the same for your body text, placing the strongest keyword phrases towards the start of a well crafted sentence. 3) Make sure your website is as spider friendly as possible. Always have a basic text version of your page navigation to give spiders the access they need. 4) Evaluate all incoming links and dump those that are not relevant to your business.

5) Take a walk with someone close to you. Enjoy the early summer. Take on a community project. Don't worry too much about Google right now because worrying isn't going to make it better. "Better" will come when Google is done updating itself.