On the Live Search blog, a recent post describes how Live Search Macros have been improved based on user feedback since the feature was released in March. One of the great things about this tool is that you can share the personalized engines you create with others. As an example, I created this search engine that restricts the results to sites related to SEO. This customized engine produces results more relevant than the normal Live Search results if you are interested in learning about SEO (and not looking for a SEO service). For example, take a look at the search results for the search term keyword research, and compare them to the results from the normal Live Search engine. The Live Search Macro results are primarily articles that explain keyword research, whereas the normal Live Search results are primarily composed of sites that offer a keyword research service.

The differences in the two result sets demonstrate the value of Live Search macros. By filtering the results to a set of domains that are known to present certain types of content, the relevancy of the search results is increased for those seeking information about a topic instead of a service. The flexibility of Live Search Macros allows you to increase the relevancy of results based on your own criteria.

Creating a customized search engine is easy if you select the "Basic" Macro creation mode. Using the Basic mode, all that needs to be done is to specify a list of the domains that you would like your macro to search. You can then compare the results of your macro search to the results of Live.com by clicking the "Test Search" button. If you are satisfied with the results, you can proceed to give the macro a name and description.

The Advanced mode is more difficult to use, but also more powerful as you might expect. In this mode, you can define your searches using the Windows Live Search syntax, which includes a set of operators such as LinkfromDomain:, language:, feed: and others. These operators allow you to further refine your results by restricting them to a specific language, or pages that contain specific terms in the page title, body, anchor or url, for example.

Although the Live Search Macro program is still in beta, many different macros are already available in the Gallery. The available macros are sorted by topic, and you will likely find a few there that you will enjoy. Of course, not all of the macros will be useful, depending on the quality of the sites that the results are drawing results from. This is one potential problem with the Live Search Macro program, but there is a rating system in place that allows users to rate the value of the macro. Over time, any poorly constructed macros will decline in rating and the best ones will rise to the top.

Conclusion
The new Live Search Macro program offered by Windows Live Search is an interesting way to potentially improve search results when searching for specific types of information on a defined topic. It's useful to create your own personalized search engine for topics and web sites that you routinely visit, and to make use of the custom engines already created by others participating in the Live Search community.

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