The news has been coming out around the blogos that Microsoft is reconvening the MSN Search Champs in April. The first event was a tremendous success - a sentiment shared by the attendees I've remained in regular contact with and the MSN Search team. This second round will bring back a number of members of the first Search Champs group including yours truly, Buzz Bruggeman, Chris Pirillo, Robin Good, Liz Lawley, and Matt Miller and add an exciting and diverse group of new champs.

Among the new invitees are Halley Suit, Mick Stanic, Elizabeth Liddy (from my alma mater - Syracuse University), Loic Le Meur, Stephanie Leffler, and Brandon Paddock. In all, it appears that approximately 20 new champs have been invited. I know Liz will be happy that Halley, Stephanie and a number of other women will be part of this Search Champs group. Last fall, she was the only woman in attendance.

I'm really pleased to have been invited back and look forward to reengaging with the MSN Search team and this new group of Search Champs to have what I fully expect will be another passionate and emphatic conversation about where MSN envisions search going. The successful launch of the new search engine and desktop search tools has established a good foundation to build on. It will be interesting to see what's coming next.

Robin Good has assembled a complete list of attendees with links for most.