Microsoft is set to unveil a new Internet search engine to locate scholarly material, a source says.

What Microsoft is expected to introduce April 11 is a competitor to Google Scholar, which provides access to peer-reviewed papers, abstracts and articles from academic publishers and other scholarly organizations.

Windows Live Academic Search, as the feature's known, "has some unique features, and is a worthy competitor," Dean Giustini wrote of his experience with the facet.

A Microsoft representative said the company has an Internet search announcement set for April 11, but would not reveal additional details.

Academic Search, as Giustini describes it, is part of the usual tit-for-tat features warfare between Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Ask and other Internet search engines. With the exception of Microsoft, these entities derive virtually all their revenues from placing ads next to their search results. So there's constant tinkering with new Internet search facets to draw in a larger audience for advertisers.

Microsoft is the exception because it not only operates a search engine, found at Live.com or MSN.com, but also has a rather successful software-selling business.