The software giant confers with bloggers at an annual meeting on how to better fit Weblogs into Microsoft's Internet search plans.It's never too late for camp; not in Redmond, Wash., anyway.
The start of fall marks the annual "MSN Search Champs Camp," which software giant Microsoft Corp. holds for the purpose of investigating how it can better integrate Weblogs into Microsoft's Internet search results.
The event, held last week, gathers together Microsoft search honchos and writers of "blogs," the frequently updated online journals that usually offer links to Web sites the author favors.
Blogs are gaining in political power as readership increases. Click here to read Chris Nolan's commentary.
The bloggers then spend a few days telling Microsoft how MSN Search, Microsoft's popular search engine, can better integrate their work into its search results, according to several 2005 camp attendees. Substantive details of the sometimes raucous discussions are kept secret.
Taken in a broader context, the camps (this is the third) spotlight how Internet search providers are coming under increasing pressure to include blogs with their search results, a nod to the new medium's growing importance and popularity.
Yahoo Inc. and other search giants have responded to the growth of blogs, along with a bevy of startup blog-search specialists, but all with tepid results.
"Really, everything out there is pretty bad right now," said Andru Edwards, who publishes GearLive.com, a blog devoted to consumer electronics. Edwards attended this year's MSN Search Champs Camp.
Edwards and a few of this year's nine "champs" that were interviewed or wrote of the camp on their blogs wouldn't comment about the substance of the discussions, or about a sneak peek Microsoft gave of its blog search developments.
Read details here about last year's search camp.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Microsoft Camp Studies Blog Search
Online Media 
