Looks like Microsoft doesn't want Google to have all of the fun, so their new ready for prime-time search engine has been released. This new search engine can be seen at: http://beta.search.msn.com.

Their index is currently supported by 5 billion pages and is a algorithmic search engine built by Microsoft engineers.  The functionality resembles the present Google and Yahoo search engines. They chose to make the interface clean and uncluttered much like Google.

MSN Search features a "Near Me" button which when clicked will present local results. By default it uses the searchers IP address to determine location. These settings can be manually changed.