Recent news has cropped up which says that MSN Windows Live Search plans to get social. Confused? Don't be. Reports tell that Microsoft has plans to introduce a new question-and-answer tool in near future, probably next month. This statement was confirmed by the senior product manager for MSN, Justin Osmer.  It is said that this unique feature will let its users direct questions to a particular section of community, say for example your group of friends. Atleast now you can get rid of those unwanted automated lists of results which come from a generic search engine.

Not only this, one more news has come up which says that Microsoft plans to buy Eurekster. If this happens, it would be yet another step of Microsoft to add the social search features to its MSN Windows Live Search service. However, Osmer in two of his statements convey the message which says "Microsoft research says that generic search engines can't answer 50% of queries," and the second statement says "Social search is a method whose time has come." Throwing more light on the said statements we can predict that Microsoft has big plans to introduce new techniques in the search engine market in the upcoming year. Know more  details on Threadwatch forum.

And as far as Microsoft's big time competitors like Yahoo! and Google are concerned, the race is all set for them too. So, let's wait and watch who wins it. Also refer Businessweek online.