Taking a leaf out of Yahoo!’s book with Yahoo! Answers, Microsoft’s Live Search team have now implemented answers in their search results.

Called “instant answers”, when you search for a specific question in Live Search the answer will appear in the top spot of the search results.

Theo Vachocsky, Live Search Product Manager explains further:

“There are really just two types of searches: “browse and seek” or “tell me now”. We’ve been working hard on the “Tell me now” type of search.

Instant answers show up at the top of your search results, offering the most relevant information we have to answer the direct or implied question in a query. We have quite a few currently on Live Search.”

I asked the question “what is the population of Rome?” and the answer appeared in top spot. Making it very quick and easy to find the answer (especially helpful for trivia questions I suspect.)

You can also quickly check out how the busy the road traffic is in your area or find out your horoscope.

Although this isn’t a major search revolution for Microsoft, I think it will be useful for both searchers and advertisers alike. For searchers it will be easy to find the answer you’re looking for and for advertisers you will get less visitors to you site who have no intention of buying.