Microsoft to buy search start-up

Microsoft has announced it has made plans to acquire Medstory, a search technology company that focuses on providing information related to health.

Medstory, which is based in California, operates a search engine - currently in beta - that is geared toward the needs of consumers and health professionals who are looking for information on medical topics. Search results are divided into categories of information relevant to the query. For example, results can be narrowed into clinical studies, procedures, personal health information, conditions and substances.

Financial terms of the Medstory acquisition were not disclosed but the start-up and its employees will become part of Microsoft's Health Solutions Group. Microsoft has touted healthcare as one field that has strong potential for enhancement by high technology.

Indeed, Medstory is not the only acquisition Microsoft has made in the healthcare sector over the past year. Back in July, it purchased patient database service Azyxxi and formed an alliance with hospital group MedStar Health to bring new technology into MedStar's hospitals.

But there may be more to Microsoft's latest acquisition than an interest in bolstering its healthcare offerings. Medstory's website hints that health is only the first topic for which it plans to implement its "intelligent search" technology, and that other "complex fields" of inquiry may be on the way.

Search is one of a number of areas where Microsoft is going head-to-head with Google, which has long dominated the field both in terms of internet search itself and also search-related advertising.

Caroline McCarthy writes for CNET News.com