Last week, Microsoft rolled out the newest addition to it’s Windows Live suite of search product, Windows Live Product Search. It looks like a direct competitor to Froogle [ http://froogle.google.com/ ] which is Google’s product search engine, but on the up side, Windows Live Product Search runs entirely in window, looks like it uses Ajax, and claims to catalog over 100,000 retailer sites to collect the best bargains for whatever product you might be searching for. I’m surprised that Microsoft didn’t add a bit more fanfare to this unveiling, as the search results can be ordered by relevance, brands, sellers, or related terms, right up there with Froogle.

That being said, it looks pretty solid, my first couple of searches turned up similar results from similar retailers as some of the other product search engines, and hovering over the images on the left of the product description produces a larger image. Also, you can change the size of the results to fit more or less on the page, and the nifty “search within this site” option beneath the search results gives you the opportunity to search for more products from the same site as the search results. We’ll see if it catches on; it was an awfully quiet announcement, but I’m definitely willing to give it a spin the next time I’m looking for the best price on an item.

[ Microsoft Windows Live Product Search Beta ]