Finally was able to try out MSN Beta Search, after a full day after it was announced. It was just spewing out errors yesterday, but now it looks all the initial hiccups have been fixed. Lots of reviews have already flooded the internet. Most seem to a little biased against Microsoft.
Personally i felt it interesting. Most of my searches were spot on, and gave me what i was looking for. The $100 million invested on this looks like well spent. But how much this will be a competition for Google remains to be seen.
Forrester Research has a positive review: MSN Search--just good enough.