Paula Hane at Information Today writes about a new search technology that may soon be included in Windows Live Search - faceted search.  One of many search projects coming out of Microsoft Research Asia's Search Technology Center, faceted search tries to identify keywords, and then classify the search results into those topics.  You can try out a beta of the new technology here.

While this may be an interesting new way of looking at search results for the casual search user, the lower costs associated with Microsoft's economies of scale may be priced as much as 90 percent less than text mining systems used in Enterprise search, by companies like Autonomy plc and FAST Search & Transfer, according to the Information Today article.

The Search Technology Center, in Beijing, is "dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art in search technology and delivering a more intelligent and powerful search experience to MSN users around the world."

Thanks to David Hunter at Microsoft News Tracker for pointing to the story.