14 DAY TRIAL // Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are the pillars of Internet search. However, only Google has become synonymous with search, while Yahoo and Microsoft are trailing the Mountain View-based company. The evolution of the positions on the Internet search market is a clear illustration that Google is the top user preference when it comes down to search engines. Fresh statistics, published by Internet metrics company Hitwise, reveal that the general trend of 2006 - w ith Google consolidating and increasing its dominance over the search engine market, while Yahoo struggled to stagnate and with Microsoft going down on all search fronts - has transitioned to 2007.
And this, despite the fact that at the beginning of the year, Microsoft's MSN and Live Search showed signs of reinvigoration, increasing the Redmond Company's hold on the search market. Following a promising 2007 debut, Microsoft's search is yet again sinking although the company is breathing new life into the workforce behind the search services and performing a strong promotion via Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7. Hitwise's data combines the results of Live Search and MSN. In March 2007, Microsoft accounted for a share of 9.15% of the search market. In April, this percentage dropped to just 8.46%, only to go further down the past month to 8.4% out of a sample of 10 million US Internet users.
Live Search will help you find your underwear after a night of hot sex (courtesy of Farhan Thawar, Live Search Program Manager), but it cannot manage to "find" a way to attract users. The problem is even more complex, since the principle of user appeal goes hand in hand with brand quality. With both MSN and Live Search, Microsoft should have enough to top Google and Yahoo, and yet searches are less consistent, and the volume of users entering queries into Microsoft search is eroding with each passing month.
"Google accounted for 65.13 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending May 26, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 20.89, 8.40 and 3.92 percent respectively. The remaining 49 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.66 percent of U.S. searches," Hitwise revealed.