Windows Live Academic Search was launched in Beta form Tuesday night.
Accoring to TODD BISHOP Microsoft Corp. is courting researchers and other academics with a specialized Web search service, its latest effort to catch up to market leader Google with its Google Scholar.
The new site lets students and others search the contents of academic journals to find abstracts and, if they subscribe to the journals, get the documents from the publishers’ sites. A split screen allows previewing the contents of a particular search result.
The University of British Columbia Librarian Dean Giustini comments consider (MLAS) the beginning of a fierce battle (bold added) for control of billions of dollars, and the future of the info-economy.
This battle can only help teachers of all levels and subjects by making more simple the search for information to use in our classes, practices, and studies.
Kudos to Microsoft for entering another educational candidate to the race.