MSN and Google produced the most relevant search results in a study released yesterday by search marketing firm IntraLink, Cincinnati, Ohio.After conducting 250 searches on the major search engines this spring, IntraLink found that MSN produced the most relevant search results with a score of 19 out of 25. Google’s relevancy was ranked second with a score of 18, Yahoo and AOL garnered a 13 percent relevancy score and Ask.com earned a score of 11.

“MSN.com and Google both do a fantastic job of mining through a billion pages of information to deliver you instructions on rebuilding a carburetor,” Eric Gurr, IntraLink president and CEO, wrote on the company’s site.

The scores were based on several factors including which engine produced the most exact matches on the first page, their performance during difficult searches and the engines’ freshness of content.

Mr Gurr said he was “very surprised” that MSN produced the most relevant results.

“Everybody today said they can’t believe MSN was the highest,” Mr. Gurr told DMNews.

Some people believe that MSN is “like a search engine from five years ago filled with spammy, advertising laced sites. This is not true,” Mr. Gurr wrote on the site at seoresourcecenter.com.

After searching two to four-word phrases like Condoleezza Rice and West Highland Terrier breeder, IntraLink also found that Google, AOL and MSN had the “freshest content,” while Ask.com showed the oldest information.

“Google performed better than any other search engine on delivering up to date information,” Mr. Gurr wrote.