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I am confused. I look through my web analytics report and still see that MSN Live is still referring traffic as well as Bing. So MSN have two search engines. Please explain. Thanks!

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Short answer: Bing is Microsoft’s search engine (launched as the replacement for Live/Windows Live Search in 2009) while MSN is a separate web portal that often surfaces Bing-powered results. ’s Wikipedia find points in the right direction: Microsoft rebranded its search product as Bing, and the MSN portal subsequently began to use Bing data for many features. ()

Why analytics can show both “msn” and “bing”: analytics tools use the browser’s referrer header and a list of known search sites to set Source/Medium. A click from a search results page hosted on the MSN domain will appear as source=msn (or search.msn.com), whereas a click from the Bing site will show source=bing. That split is purely reporting — not proof of two independent, fully different engines. (bounteous.com)

Why the SERPs can look different even when MSN is using Bing: the MSN portal may inject modules, editorial content, shopping widgets, social feeds or cached/redirect behavior that change the page a user sees (and may alter clicks and perceived ranking). In practice the index/algorithm comes from Bing, but portal presentation and extra modules can produce different visible results. Microsoft documentation and coverage of MSN’s 2009 redesign describe this Bing->MSN relationship. ()

Practical next steps (analytics/reporting): treat the two sources as distinct when diagnosing traffic (check the full referrer/hostname and landing page), then optionally roll them up for reporting by creating a custom channel grouping or a segment that groups msn, bing (and legacy live names) together. That approach preserves raw data while giving a combined “Bing-powered” view for totals and trend analysis. See guidance on custom channel groupings for implementation. (annielytics.com)

Summary: was right that they’re related; and were right that the visible results can differ. The clearest way to resolve the confusion is to inspect raw referrer hostnames and landing pages in the analytics data and, if desired, create a roll-up that treats MSN and Bing as one reporting source.

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Member Avatar for karol33

i think that they are related and few months ago i noticed Bing uses MSN engine but i might be wrong

Member Avatar for joelchrist

No, Bing and MSN provides different search results.

Member Avatar for Nile Hadwards

No Bing and MSN provides different search results because both has it's own algorithm.

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