Microsoft Corp. plans Tuesday to officially launch its updated and renamed Internet search engine, the latest step in a massive effort to make headway against market leaders Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc.

Live Search had previously been available in test form and is the successor to MSN Search, Microsoft’s current search engine. It ranks a distant third in U.S. popularity after Yahoo and Google, according to the most recent data from Nielsen/Net Ratings.

The release also is part of the software company’s push to offer a number of free, Web-based services under its new “Live” brand name. The approach has been aimed at helping the company establish a fresh, separate Internet brand for those services, but it also has confused some users more familiar with the company’s traditional MSN Internet branding strategy.

Source: MSNBC

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