MSN launches shopping search engine in beta, competes with Froogle

Hat tip to Steve Rubel for pointing out the new MSN Shopping engine, now in beta. I can't say I'm overly impressed with it. It does feel kinda like Froogle, with the price range selector on the left side, but it is way over the top with all the graphic logos on the right side. The search results pages load a bit slow for my taste. I tried a search for "canon digital cameras" and got appalling results: not even ONE of the top 10 products was an actual camera! All I got on the first page of results was lenses, cases, photo paper, a warranty, and a camcorder. And of those 10 results, they were all from either J&R Music and Computer World or B&H Photo and Video. Contrast that with the same "canon digital cameras" search on Froogle, and every single one of the top 10 results were digital cameras (made by Canon, I might add). And to top it off, the Froogle SERP loaded over 3 times faster than the MSN Shopping SERP. Microsoft, you guys have your work cut out for ya.