SearchPoint is the idea I donated to the MSN Search team.  I disseminated it to a handful of individuals across the team hierarchy so I think the chance of it seeing the light of day is fair.  Since I came up with the idea, I don't think it falls under the NDA agreement, but I am not going to discuss it's details for their sake.

Since when did I care about Microsoft?  Frankly, I don't give a hoot about Microsoft.  I do like the MSN Search team though.  They were open in all senses of the word and, although they had some trouble grokking foreign thoughts we threw at them, I found myself caring for now.  Besides, they gave me a nice backpack and an expensive cigar.  Yeah, I am a cheap date.

I will say that the SearchPoint idea has some excellent characteristics such as:

1. offers substantial benefits to users
2. offers substantial benefits to websites.
3. leverages MSN search engine's main strength.
4. costs little or nothing to implement
5. dynamic extensibility

#1 means users will see much better search results with minimal effort.  #2 makes SearchPoint viral.  #3 makes it difficult for competitors to replicate SearchPoint.  #4 means SearchPoint will have little impact on the project schedule and resources.  #5 means SearchPoint can be used as a platform to launch other services.

Sorry about the tease but I do enjoy teasing. 😉

BTW, SearchPoint is not a variation of the Search Hats idea although the benefits to the users are similar.