Microsoft said on Monday it was aiming to make search services--a hot technology right now with the impending public offering of Google--customized for users so that results would be based on individual preferences and interests.
"We"re going to make search extremely personal," Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told an audience of computer science and technology researchers at the software giant"s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Personalized search promises to deliver search results that are more relevant by taking into account an individual"s interests based on previous search queries and other information.
Gates was responding to a question dealing with privacy issues and mentioned Microsoft"s search efforts because users would have to provide private information to get personalized search results.
Search technology is Microsoft"s latest high-profile target as it gears up to challenge top Web search provider Google. Last week, Microsoft demonstrated a search engine that looks for information on computer hard drives as well as on the Web.