Is Microsoft Gaining Ground In The Search Wars?

from the maybe-a-little dept

Wed, Jul 11th 2007 8:20am — Joseph Weisenthal

A new report makes the surprising assertion that Microsoft is actually gaining ground in the search race and that in just the last couple of months it's significantly closed the gap with Yahoo for the #2 slot. Assuming the numbers are legitimate, this would be the first sign of life out of this business in quite a while. Still, it's hard to say whether Microsoft's momentum is real. The company is probably getting a moderate boost from the adoption of Vista and the new IE7, which has Live search set as a default. If you'll recall, this setting prompted Google to make an antitrust complaint against the company. The company has also been using other lures to get users, such as awarding points to certain searchers, which can be redeemed to purchase stuff from the company. None of this suggests that users are really switching from one site to another in significant numbers (which is what would be significant), though perhaps Microsoft is picking up a few marginal users that aren't particularly attached to one service or another. If true, Microsoft will probably hit a ceiling pretty quickly.

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Filed Under: antitrust, search
Companies: microsoft

26 Comments

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Buzz, 11 Jul 2007 @ 8:39am

LOL
Well, with Google sitting at the top unable to surpass perfection, all their competitors can do IS gain ground. ^_^

OK, so Google isn't PERFECT, but really, they've created a whole industry off what they do best. Why is Microsoft trying to outdo them? We don't see Google releasing its own OS anytime soon.
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Mitch the Bitch, 11 Jul 2007 @ 9:19am

Google is an out of control Corperation that is nothing more than a political arm of the scumbag Democrats.

If you think Google doesnt want into the OS market you have not been paying very close attention.

America needs a google firewall.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 9:24am

America needs a google firewall.

thats funny cause i always thought the world needs a MS firewall.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 9:30am

All i could think of when i read your comment "Mitch the Bitch" was, "What?!"

Then my brain shut down in order to protect itself from the most uninformed response i have ever heard. (well not ever)
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Nasty Old Geezer, 11 Jul 2007 @ 9:31am

No monopolies
Any company that gains more than one-third of a market for anything becomes corrupt -- no exceptions that I am aware of.

Neither Google nor Microsoft needs to be firewalled, they just need viable competition so they are kept in line with the public interest.

THe scariest thing to me is that MS is stil using the same weapon -- their OS monopoly -- to crush competition in other areas. Judge Jackson had the correct remedy, but with enough money you can buy the verdict you want.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:19am

So what if it has live search set as default, when you use IE7 the first time it lets you change your default search to whatever you want. Apparently people can find any reason to bitch
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Overture/Yahoo!-EX, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:20am

LMAO....
Too bad no one realizes that Yahoo/Overture has served up MSN search results since 2001, exclusively....Oh and uh....Google....yeah, they are great...BUT...they duplicated Overture/GoTo.com's original business model and added the Google flair...proving once again that, YES, this is a lucrative business.
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Norman619, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:27am

Re: LOL
To be honest I am looking for an alternative to Google right now. At this point I'd gladly switch to MS search if they are just as good. I may dislike MS for a few things but at this point I dislike Google much more. Lesser of two evils.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:30am

Re: Mitch the GOP Bitch
Google is an out of control Corperation that is nothing more than a political arm of the scumbag Democrats.

what are you talking about???

I'll play along and pretend that made sense, then I'll hit myself in the head with a hammer a few times and say:

I guess the Dems need something to try to counteract the political arm of the Scumbag Corporations, opps, I mean Scumbag Republicans...The Whitehouse!
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Norman619, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:31am

Re: No monopolies
What monopoly? Sorry but there are other OS options out there. The problem is that software vendors are making those options less viable by not porting apps over to them. You can't blame MS for this. You are free to switch to OSX and the various flavors of Linux. If there software base was not there for Windows then this would be a whole different ballgame.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:36am

Re: Re: LOL
How is MS the lesser of the two evils?
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Norman619, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:47am

Re: LMAO....
I have to agree. No inovation there. Google did not create this market like many people seem to believe. I remember when webcrawler was the shit.
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Norman619, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:51am

Set as default?
"The company is probably getting a moderate boost from the adoption of Vista and the new IE7, which has Live search set as a default. If you'll recall, this setting prompted Google to make an antitrust complaint against the company. "

WTF are they talking about? When you first launch IE7 after install it forces you to CHOOSE a default search. There is no "default." Google are a bunch of crybabies who want MS to cripple the native Vista search to make their desktop search more attractive. Nevermind the fact that the search has been in place for a LONG time just never implemented properly until Vista. What a load of crap.
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Wow, 11 Jul 2007 @ 10:57am

I'm Impressed
Norman619 is trolling the shit out of this thread. I say good show, old man. Keep up the good work.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 11:04am

IE7 had a "bug" that switched the default back to Live Search at random. After the anti-trust complaint was filed, Microsoft was able to fix the problem in a day.

Makes you wonder if it was a bug or they did it on purpose. I'm betting it was intentional.
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Norman619, 11 Jul 2007 @ 11:07am

Re:
There was? That's funny because I've been using IE7 since it's release and it never switched me away from google as my default like I told it to do since the first install. Odd....
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Tom, 11 Jul 2007 @ 11:36am

Agree w/ Comment above
Any normal person customizes their PC to what they like 2 seconds after they get it. Just cause Live was set as my default search on Vista doesn't mean I kept it. My PC illiterate family uses obsolete Yahoo for christ sakes. Ppl nowadays DO bitch about anything and everything.
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SailorAlphaCentauri, 11 Jul 2007 @ 12:33pm

Re: Agree w/ Comment above
What are you talking about!?! Yahoo is not "obsolete" and does a much better job of finding specific sites than Google could ever do. Google is useful for finding out more about something, but if you're looking for something more specific, Google doesn't do it for me. Besides, if you look at the stats, Google gets more search traffic, but Yahoo isn't hurting for anything & still has the #1 e-mail on the web.
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Patrick, 11 Jul 2007 @ 12:53pm

Re:
Gee Mitch, at least Dorpus makes sense "sometimes".
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Nasty Old Geezer, 11 Jul 2007 @ 2:19pm

Re: Re: No monopolies
You seem to imply that there is not a monopoly unless there is only one remaining product. A monopoly exists when the dominant product has the ability to bend the market to its own advantage through non-competitive means.

The existance of Linux, UNIX, MAC, or whatever does not mean MS does not have monoply power over the desktop OS market. THere is more competition in the server OS market, but MS continues to employ the same tactics that have been held illegal in the past.

They use the leverage of the overwhelmingly dominant desktop OS to compete in unrelated fields. This lverage is applied in two ways: ISVs are discouraged from writing or porting apps to other platforms by the excellent MS support system and implied threats of loss of status the MS Developer Network. Also, PC manufacturers also get the carrot-and-stick treatment via licensing arrangements. THe recent Dell offer of Unbuntu is astonishing -- unless MS has re-evaluated and decided that 80-85% market share is 'enough' and trying to get the rest will simply stir up trouble.

You mention porting applications to non-MS OS platforms. Breaking MS into an OS company and an application company would have provided the incentive to do that. We would have had Office for Linux in short order. Intuit would have followed shortly with Quicken and Turbo Tax, and all the Office dependent ISVs racing to stay up.

At the same time, a Windows OS company would have been busy publishing ALL the API calls and getting serious about security and stability, since they could no longer count on sales brought in by the captive productivity apps.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 3:31pm

Nasty Old Geezer
comment #20 - right on all counts
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PhysicsGuy, 11 Jul 2007 @ 4:28pm

Re: I'm Impressed
to me, it looks like someone who is just fed up with google.
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anonymous coward, 11 Jul 2007 @ 5:39pm

google has gotten pretty spamy these days. In live search the first 4 results arn't sponsored/unrelated (a result can either be sponsored or relevant - the two are mutually exclusive)
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The Smart Guy, 11 Jul 2007 @ 8:07pm

The Real Reason
The reason is club.live.com
There are games there that utilize microsoft's search engine. If you accumulate enough points you will get decent prizes. There is also a macro that can aid you in solving the puzzles.

Each puzzle uses the search engine at least 10 times. Using the macro you can play many times in a short about of time.
if you play 100 games then 100 * 10 = 10000 uses of search engine per 100 games per person
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Faceless Minion, 12 Jul 2007 @ 12:01pm

Re:
Mitch, have you been forgetting to take your medication again?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2007 @ 12:04pm

Re: Re: LMAO....
Actually, taking something and finding out how to market and monetize it IS innovation. Google just didnt INVENT it. ;)
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