IE9 - Not able to resolve server name

I have IE9 on windows 7.  I also have an http service running on a server.  If I type "ping server1" in a command prompt the name gets resolved by DNS to the address 192.168.1.250 and the server responds to the ping.  However if I then type server1 into the address bar of IE9 I get redirected to a search page with "Your search for server1 did not match with any Web results".  Chrome works as expected opening the page using either the IP address or the server name, so I'm assuming it's an IE problem.

Can anyone suggest what the problem is and how to fix it?

Many thanks

Paul