Microsoft has once again declared its intention to battle Google for the search engine market. The company has decided to try and improve on its search style and capabilities, but these efforts have gone on for the last couple of years with zero results.
An article in Seattle-Post Intelligencer displays a graph showing the growth and number of queries of Google and Microsoft, as well as Yahoo. The most apparent conclusion that can be drawn from this picture is that Microsoft can not start a battle with Google until it defeats Yahoo first. Bill Gates’ company trails Yahoo by nearly a billion queries. Yahoo has also shown growth over the past couple of years, while MSN/Live search has stagnated and floundered under 700 million queries.
Microsoft’s inability to gain a significant market share, despite a growth in the market of over 3 billion queries in the past two years, just typifies how the company has shown little inability to shoo away the gnat that has become a real nuisance in Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin have moved in on MSN with Gmail accounts with calendar functions that you can access without a cost. As well Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which hones right in on Microsoft’s Home Office customers.
Google has the fun name that has attracted a young crowd. It also has interesting features and easy accessibility. Meanwhile, Microsoft can't decide what its search engine should be called, and has renamed it at least three times.
Microsoft's numbers fall so far behind the Google’s search engine queries because it has not been able to catch up with Google’s technologies. The company continues its attempt to invade a market that has passed it by. Maybe Gates should have his employees focus on a segment of the company that has a fighting chance to win. It's not like it will fall apart, despite losing the advertising market that comes along with search engines.
Microsoft needs to make sure that Google will not defeat it in other markets. If Google does, that's when the execs at Microsoft really need to start worrying.
Related Stories: | Topics:Technology, technology + computers, Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., Computer Technology, Science and Technology, Technology |
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Recent Comments | 3 Total
March 7, 2007 at 3:43pm by Adam Jusko
It's kind of head-scratching the way Microsoft has not been able to improve its search product. It doesn't get more traffic because so many people find it not useful. You have to wonder what they've been doing with all that talent and money. If we'd had it at our human-powered search site Bessed (http://www.bessed.com), we'd be sitting pretty instead of clamoring for investment cash.
March 8, 2007 at 12:15am by Parsa Sepahi
Microsoft’s core business is desktop software. It has to first FOLLOW Yahoo and Google and build a very similar “Ads On Free Content” Model.
But instead of doing business they are playing politics. Microsoft's general consul is arguing that Google is profiting from copyrighted material. First, if you think about it the entire Internet is copyrighted! In fact almost every website you go to has a little copyright notice. Does that mean they don’t want the search engine to look at its content?
Please!
That's a flawed strategy.
As for the argument that peoples copyrighted material is being used let me remind you of something: if you put it on the web people will see it! So don’t blame Google, in fact Google is helping to promote the work of these people, everyone knows that the real money in the publishing business is in actually PRINTING books! If you write the book then Google will promote your excerpt!
Once Microsoft’s Web Business Models are perfect (at least not less than Yahoo and Google) then it needs to strategically integrate it with the desktop applications while reducing their PRICE. Right now Microsoft needs a unique Twin Core of Desktop Application and Web Business Models, including of course Ads On Free Content, Web Services and etc…
Best,
parsa@invesloan.com
March 8, 2007 at 10:25am by fwa
MS didn't touch their web browser for what 6-7 years. They are basically a dinasaur dying a slow painful tortuaous death. See Sony. Its all the tired but true cliches. Too many cooks...right hand doesn't know what the left is doing...blah blah blah...
To see the final product that is Vista can you belive the buracracy, politics, and infighting to make it come out with that 8 version totally confusing mishmash apple clone operating system. It took them THAT long to copy Apple. How embarrassing.
After all these years, money, expertise and operating systems/computers are still too complicated for my parents/grandparents to use or understand...how sad...I mean why does Ms even care about backwards compatibity. I have to buy a brand new computer for Vista, but hey my Office 96 will still work. It's bizarre....