Microsoft overhauls search engine

Microsoft has announced changes to its search engine which it hopes will narrow the gap with arch-rival Google.

Live Search will now search four times as many sites for new information. Microsoft also said that it had completely overhauled the core technology that decides which results to display.

"It´s a huge improvement," Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft´s search and advertising group, told the Associated Press. "We believe we can now compete with Google."

Changes mean that the engine will be better able to interpret user searches, even if they misspell a word.

In addition, Microsoft´s system will now be able to detect "stop words" more effectively - these are keywords or phrases that need to be put in context.

The new search engine will pay special attention to shopping, local searches and maps, health, and entertainment and Microsoft is reportedly even considering changing its search´s name to help it compete.

Recent figures from comScore indicated that Google remained the top search engine in the US in August - controlling 56.5 per cent of the market.

In contrast, just 12.3 per cent of searches used Microsoft´s system.