Microsoft's Live Search sports a new cleaner simpler UI that seems to be some good learning it has taken from its competitors Google and Yahoo.

An excerpt from Live Blog

Search box near results The new Live Search header and search box is slimmed down from a heavy piece of UI into sleeker, simpler elements. Bringing the search box into alignment with the results and into the body moves it closer to where users are looking and flattens out the visual bumps between it and the results.

Room to breathe on the page Something else you'll see on a large screen (lucky you!) is our centered, fixed-width page, allowing for a more thoughtful, predictable experience as richer search content and wider screens become the norm.

Crisp, clean type We've also made changes to our color and typography. Our decision to use Arial and the new color palette was based not only on our desire to improve readability and consistency, but also on rounds of testing to find the right combination.

Intuitive video search For our new video search experience, the team focused on activities and behaviors that make video search different. We focused on simplicity - cutting irrelevant pixels and text - and power - investing in enhanced preview for video - both of which contribute to the overall simple, yet powerful experience.

Health results integrated from many sources You'll see in health search that we've created a way for users to pull together health information from many different sources, digestible all in one place.

Great start to catch-up with Google and Yahoo, especially now that the Yahoo deal has fallen through.