Microsoft Goes Deep with Search Results, Competes with Google's Sitelinks
The team at Live Search as announced the addition of a deep links feature to its search results. Similar to Google’s Sitelinks, the feature lists prominent internal links for the #1 result on certain searches.
I did a comparison of this feature for both Live Search and Yahoo. My first search is for the “State Department.”
As you can see, Live Search lists the deep links in a single column, indented underneath the home page of the State Department’s website.
While Google lists more results in 2 columns, and offers a search within a search box underneath the Sitelinks.
Next, I did a search for Starbucks. Live Search listed a paid search link, followed by local listings and then served up the first organic results with deep links. It’s pretty far down on the page, especially since the closest Starbucks to me is not one of the three local listings provided by Live Search. Also, it provides Related Searches on the Sidebar, one of which is a search for a link provided in the deep links.
Google had a much more simple results page for Starbucks. The paid search ads are only on the sidebar and you get to the corporate Starbucks website right away.
For the most part, Google seems to turn up more Sitelinks than Live Search. Also, Google provides Sitelinks for sites that Live Search doesn’t. Searches for both “Search Engine Watch” and “Nike” both returned Sitelinks in Google but no deep links in Live Search.
Related Reading:
Google Sitelinks: New Name For Those Links Under The Top Listings
Google Revamps Sitelinks