Microsoft search is closing in on Yahoo and Google. The combined results of MSN and Live Search have exploded from May to June 2007, according to statistics made public by Internet metrics companies comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings for the United States. Microsoft's search has indicated signs of reinvigoration since the beginning of 2007, but in the past month the volume of queries have really picked up, and the Redmond company's share of the search engine market has increased considerably.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, MSN/Windows Live Search jumped from 605 million searches in May to no less than 985 million in June. If Microsoft keeps this trend it will manage to top the 1 billion milestone in July. And with an Year over Year growth of 77.4%, Microsoft search now accounts for 13.3% of the market, up from 8.4% two months ago. This is nothing but good news for the Redmond company, which has been struggling to create and keep an ascendant trend and momentum for MSN and Live Search in its face-off with Yahoo and Google.

By comparison, Nielsen//NetRatings reported that in excess of 3.9 billion searches were entered in the Google search engine, representing a market share of 52.7%. And while the Mountain View search giant is the indisputable leader of the market, Yahoo has also grown to 1.5 billion searches and a share of 20.2%. Still, following Microsoft's explosion, the gap that separates the Redmond company from Yahoo has narrowed down to under 7% of the market, or approximately 600 million searches.

comScore confirms Microsoft's growth in June, although the actual statistics vary because of the different methodology. "In June 2007, Google Sites maintained its spot atop the rankings with 49.5 percent of the U.S. search market. Yahoo! Sites captured second place with 25.1 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (13.2 percent), Ask Network (5.0 percent) and Time Warner Network (4.2 percent)," comScore stated, adding that "Microsoft Sites experienced a significant increase in search query volume (up 36 percent) and search market share (up 2.9 share points) in June, due in large part to Live Search Club, a program launched by Microsoft in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search."