The application works in a similar way to that of Google's Gmail. By searching the text of an email, Active Search will pick up on the keyword subject and serve contextually relevant ads down on the right-hand side of the screen, along with a list of keywords that may (or may not) be of interest at that particular time. Clicking on one of the listed keywords will automatically initiate the relevant search through the standard MSN network.
For example, say a certain article writer had received an email from his mother which politely suggested that his somewhat untidy hair could do with a trim, then Active Search would pick up on the subject matter and display adverts for salons, grooming equipment, and so on. Also, suggested searches may include 'hairdressers', 'bouffant' and 'perm'.
To ease worries of Big Brother style spying (this would be the Big Brother from the fantastic George Orwell novel, and is not to be confused with the mindless reality TV show) Microsoft is keen to point out that information is not collected or used for other purposes and will be deleted as soon as you restart the Windows Live Mail Desktop. There is also the functionality to manually turn Active Search off at any time.
Whilst in the Beta test the adverts will be provided by current Microsoft partner Kanoodle, although sponsored links from Microsoft's AdCenter will be shown upon clicking on the keywords suggested for search. I suspect that I am not alone in thinking, however, that after a successful test period Microsoft would enable users of the AdCenter to show adverts through Active Search, keeping any revenue stream being generated firmly in-house.
