I’ve tried several times over the last week or so to look up details of an API, given its name, using Google (using a search engine in the web browser is still faster than waiting for the documentation browser to load) and have found that the official documentation (that is, msdn.microsoft.com) has just plummeted off the list.
MSN Search still brings up the API documentation usually as the first or second result (often, if it’s a routine that Windows CE also implements, it’s the first and second result). In case you think this is a quirk or that somehow Microsoft are blocking Google’s spider, it’s interesting to note that MSDN is usually the top hit on Yahoo search as well. Of course that doesn’t prove that Microsoft aren’t blocking Google’s spider.
If, like me, you’re using IE 7 Beta 2, you can use the MSDN Lab search (which uses MSN Search under the covers) directly from the browser search box by going to http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/search/ and clicking the “Got IE7? – get our search” link in the bottom right-hand corner.
