By all accounts the search engine battles continue and MSN has now debuted its beta search program as well. But it remains to be seen if Googlers will so easily switch to MSN search, when Google is already so well-established as a well-heeled verb in this arena.

The global beta version of MSN Search was released yesterday for public use in the U.S. and worldwide in 26 markets and 11 languages from local MSN Web sites.

"The release of our beta is a huge step toward delivering the information consumers are looking for online, faster than previous versions of MSN Search," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft Corp. "With better results and more powerful search tools, MSN Search is creating a new, higher standard for online search -- one that helps consumers find the information they need, when they need it."

But just as searchers began to search out the much-hyped beta, its problems debuted on a follow up entry to its blog. Stating, “In the process of making our new MSN Search beta broadly available we experienced some technical difficulties that caused the beta service to function improperly or be unavailable for some users for periods of time. We're working through these issues one by one and you should see service availability and quality improve soon if not already. We apologize for any inconvenience. We expected to find some problems in the beta, and we expect there will also be times when we limit service availability for maintenance purposes. We want to find those problems in order to help us build a higher quality product, and we appreciate your help in doing this.”

The blog entry goes on to detail the problems with the search service and the blog itself that are browser compatibility issues with FireFox. (Note: Interesting, that it is IE’s competitors’ browser.) Microsoft noted, “We're working on broad browser support and have done some specific testing in this area, but it's clear more is needed.”

With its blandly named “Search Near Me” feature, Microsoft hopes to garner searches near and far. But will the new beta search engine solve the problems, and quickly move on to out-search Google and other competitors on Search Survivor Island? Not likely, but stay tuned.