Those looking for a simple way to preview Web pages during a search can try Microsoft's aptly named MSN Search Preview. This feature, which is included in Internet Explorer 5.0 and above, lets you view thumbnail images of the first six hits in each page of results. This MSN service was still in beta during testing and clearly had a long way to go before becoming truly useful.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x and Windows XP users must also alter their default search settings from Search Companion (a little cartoon dog) to Search Assistant for MSN Search Preview to work. Once enabled, the utility works within Internet Explorer through the search pane or with MSN selected as your default search engine. The thumbnails appear as hyperlinked images in the main browser window, so clicking on any one of them will lead to the page shown in the thumbnail. Why this is limited to six previews is unclear, especially as most searches yield ten or more hits per page of results.

But the six-thumbnail cap is of minimal concern compared with the stunning inaccuracy of most thumbnails. The software generates these images from the home page of most Web domains rather than from the actual page. For example, if your search turns up a page from a Web-hosting giant such as Angelfire, the thumbnail will show Angelfire's home page, not the page listed in the search results. The same holds true for any page listed under a university domain name. Even an MSN Encarta entry generated the MSN home page for a thumbnail rather than the actual Encarta entry that appeared in our search results. Despite this flaw, however, when you click on the thumbnail, the link takes you to the correct page.

We realize that this is a free and optional service, but there's little point to thumbnails that do not show the page in question.