It goes without saying that the newly revamped MSN Search is going to be a serious contender to Google. Being deep-pocketed, Microsoft is even going to drop paid inclusion in its bid to surpass Google the Great/Threat. Still, it remains too early to predict the winner of the imminent search engine war; only time will tell.

Speaking of which, search capabilities have been added to Odds&Ends. Make use of the search page to find past entries should you fail to locate them in the archive. The page also carries search bars from Google and Amazon. The former is part of the Adsense program; the latter, a similar program by Amazon.

Also, the about page is up. My reading list and playlist are featured on that page; do check them out. Spent the last few days tweaking both pages; that explains the lack of updates of late.

Around the net: Here's something to crack you up if you're not having that great a day. Don't miss out too on the preview of Mac OS X Tiger. Again, Apple is lightyears ahead of Microsoft; the new OS X will feature among many other cool stuff, Spotlight; something similar to what Microsoft is promising to put in Longhorn (due in 2 long years). Again, only time will tell whether Microsoft can deliver its promises.

If you're into playing games, Bushgame is both fun and educational (with the inverted commas). The game features the "religiously cryptic" Voltron as the "Secretary of Compassionate Conservatism". As a kid, I revered Voltron; I loved the show. To see it playing the "bad guy" in the game is both amusing and disturbing. At least, the Autobots will always be on the good side. Autobots, who? Don't tell me you've forgotten the world of Autobots and Decepticons! It's the ultimate sin! You won't forget them for long; not when the Transformers game will be hitting the streets soon and it looks rather good too on some of the screenshots.