Microsoft has plans to launch an experimental search site called Viveri sometime this summer, the company announced at its TechFest event.

Viveri will allow researchers to test new concepts and receive public feedback without having to add features to Live Search.

The site will offer Live Search results and is being built using Silverlight, Microsoft’s technology for developing online user interfaces.

Microsoft Research software architect, Robert Rounthwaite, expects the site to attract serious technology users because they will be interested in trying out the new search offerings.

"Most people are not going to want to have their lives interrupted by the latest wacky idea we have," Rounthwaite said. "But some people will, and their feedback will help us figure out which ones aren’t so wacky."

The goal of Viveri is to offer better search results from vertical search engines. When a user does a search on Viveri they will see a normal list of results. On the right side of the results page they will see a number of boxes appear linking to Web sites related to the search term.

Some of the features being tested on Viveri could eventually make their way onto Live Search depending on how well they work and user feedback.