Real time flight status is now available in Canada!

In an effort to continue offering consumers instant access to information through Live Search, the Answers team has built out the flight status answer for 5 English markets.  This is a huge feature for Canada.

It’s simple to use – just type in the flight number (AC 540) and you’ll receive real-time flight information for both domestic and international flights.

Try it for yourself today on Live.ca!

Examples:

- Air Canada

- West Jet

- Porter

- American

You have been doing tons of search a day, may it be work related, personal interest, or simply because you are bored!  So now imagine if these searches actually give you chances to win BIG Prizes???  All you need to do is simple, go to our promotion site bigticketsearch.com, and do your search like usual.  no pop ups, no no spywares, no mailing list sign up… just.. your search results :)  And you will then be given 2 tickets, if they match, you win! :)

yup, that’s it.

I didn’t win, why don’t you try it?

And a few words from our search team.

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Microsoft Live Search 'Big Ticket' promotion

Big Ticket Search will run from October 31st through December 31st. Every time our users search at bigticketsearch.com, they have a chance to win awesome prizes every hour, 24 hours a day. We'll be giving away tons of  prizes including 2 new Mitsubishi Lancers, Raptors VIP package, Home Entertainment Systems, Laptops, $10,000 cash, Ticketmaster Gift Cards, Zunes, Xboxes, Raptors Season Tickets and Raptors Memorabilia.

Guest post from Maggie, PM for Live Maps in Canada.

Our major release this Fall – “Helios” was released last night!  Check it out – we now have multi-way point (where you can add multiple stops for your driving directions – a popular feature that our users ask for), route based on traffic information, 3D weather, localized FR-CA map labels and an improved 3D installer!

Multi-way point:

User Clearflow to route based on traffic:

Localized FR-CA map label:

3D weather:

This feature shows up in 3D mode when you’re close to the ground. (There is a setting in the 3D options to switch it on and off.)

Check it out today at http://maps.live.ca

Live Search has evolved and is now more comprehensive, empowering and rewarding than ever before. Helping you find what you’re looking for faster; and delivering more engaging, relevant and richer results; the New Live Search will keep people coming back for more.
Discover more about the great new features of Live Search, including videos and imaging, maps, and celebrity news, and many more

Always know where you are with Live Search Maps
Live Search’s location searches just got even better with the integration of Multimap. Multimap combined with Virtual Earth’s Aerial and Birds Eye imagery creates a powerful service, packed full of unique features in an easy-to-use site.
Try it Now!

Track how popular is your favourite celebrity is with xRank™!
Find more information about your favourite celebrity, where they are ranked, their latest videos and song lyrics... all in one place!
Try it Now!

Find the content you want, when you want it with both Image Search and Video Search!
With video and image search growing, content is now quicker and easier to share, with more dynamic access to a larger offering of videos and a richer selection of images. Offering you relevant suggestions for popular images and videos.
Try it Now!

Thank you for your support and Happy Live Searching!

Thanks to the work of the Live Search Selection Team we now have full access to all the Fodor’s Travel Guides through our Book Search & new Travel Instant Answer.

Fodor’s books are now available in the Live Book Search.  There are approximately 120 titles in the series, covering most high-interest destinations.

- Tx, Maggie, Product Manager, Windows Live

So, where are you heading next? :)

http://www.live.com

This update is mainly a UI change.  Features are reorganized to enhance usability and at the same time, I notice a quite dramatic improvement in PLT1/2 load times.. maybe it's my perception :)?

I'll edit this post if I get more update from the search team,

Guest post from our Live Maps PM.

I’m pleased to announced the traffic feature is updated on Live Maps today.  It includes traffic flow and incident information for Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

Also, please check out our latest Instant Answer additions launch recently on our core search experience, it includes Local Instant Answers and Celebrity Instant Answers (more to come later this month!).

Take a look and help us spead the words to your friends & family :)

Traffic for Toronto:

Update: to get the traffic information, just click on the "traffic" button on the toolbar:

Celebrity Instant Answer:

Local Instant Answer:

Guest post from Mohit in the Maps team

Windows Live has made some exciting advancements to their latest Maps search engine, so view the world in a whole new way with Live Search Maps. Have you taken a trip recently, and want to mark all the places you visited? Did you want to show your friends and family all the places you went? Say no more, because you can do just that! Search for locations with Live Search Maps and add them to your scratch pad. Save the collection and come back to it anytime you want. What’s more, you can go to Collections.Live.com and upload your collection for all the world to see, and check out collections that other people have uploaded. Maybe you want to find costume shops across Canada, the new wonders of the world, or all the venues hosting the 2007 Rugby World Cup. It’s all there at Collections.Live.com, as will be every collection you can create!

With Live Search Maps you can experience the world in a whole new way!

My addendum:

I'm very glad to see this new version released in Canada.  The control now is much more intuitive and easier to use.  The over search experience is also MUCH improved over the last release.  We've come a LONG way and I hope you guys will like this new release that our team has worked so hard on :)

Oh, and stay tuned.  More announcements coming

I'm probably very late in this blogging cycle.  If you have already seen these kind of posts, feel free to ignore.  But hey!  It's always nice to hear the news from a Canadian isn't it!

I've attached a blog post from our Canadian Search PM, Farhan below.

If you want more details, here is our press release and here is the Live Search fact sheet.

So no doubt, you're going to see the press/blogs around the US (+ some other markets) as we launch the new Live Search 2.0 experience and you're wondering what about us canucks?  Well I'm happy to say that this Friday we'll be launching our new search experience for us in Canada (and yes in English and French).  So, what's coming?

Better Performance

• 4X the index size (boo-yah!)
• Much better relevance and query intent
• New results UI (fonts, colours, text, sizes, wording, etc.)
• Better integration with Windows Live and Sympatico/MSN (via the standardized header)
• Faster results
• More images in our sick image search experience

On the horizon

• New homepage for Canada
• More kick-ass relevance improvements (like query refinement!)
• Better integration with Windows Live Translator
• Updated mapping experience

Are you excited?  Try it out at www.live.ca after Friday, and send me your feedback.

Important:  Make sure your browser language (in IE or Firefox) is set to EN-CA/FR-CA to ensure the most relevant and performant (is that even a word?) experience.

Live Search Maps has just released new 3D model data. Check it out! Explore and step into new 3D maps for Toronto, Quebec, Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Landmarks and office towers sprout off of the map, bringing cities to life. Maybe you can see your office building in 3D!

Check out maps with high quality satellite images for Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Quebec City and Montreal. I no longer have to wonder what my house looks like from space!

Visit Live Search Maps at maps.live.ca, and then see what you can create with the Virtual Earth API at http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/default.aspx?app=virtual_earth.