How to Disable MSN Live Search

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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MSN Live Search is a useful feature of MSN that helps other people find your Web site. When you submit your MSN Web site to Live Search, the program scans your Web site for appropriate key words to use in creating a listing for you on the MSN search engine. When people want to find your Web site or a Web site containing information found in your Web site, they can enter the appropriate information in the MSN search engine, and Live Search will provide a link to your site. However, you may not want other people to find your Web site. You could have any number of reasons for wanting this. Fortunately, there are several ways to disable MSN Live Search. Follow these steps to find out how.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

MSN account
Computer
MSN Web page
Working Internet connection

Be Anonymous When You Disable MSN Live Search

Step 1

Log in to MSN to access your account information (see Resources below).
Step 2

Go to your MSN Web page and remove any pages from it that you do not want listed on Live Search. This is the best option if you only want certain parts of your Web site to be excluded from MSN Live Search.
Step 3

Put a "robots.txt" file in the HTML code of your Web site. This will effectively disable MSN Live Search by keeping the MSN Web crawlers from reading your site (the Web crawlers have to be able to read your site to include its information on Live Search). To learn more about "robots.txt" files, visit the "Robots Frequently Asked Questions" Web site (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

If you have further need of information regarding how to disable MSN Live Search, have a look at the useful MSN Help page (see Resources below).
Be sure you remember that MSN has now changed its name to Windows Live. Only the name is different, though. The content is still the same MSN you know and love.
Enhance your online privacy. MSN takes measures to prevent hackers and identity thieves from accessing your account. You can help them in this effort by keeping your MSN password secret and changing it periodically. You can also help ensure your own personal safety by not giving out any identifying information about yourself to strangers you meet online and not engaging in correspondence with anyone you do not know unless it is for business reasons.