It's not the best season for Microsoft search. Not with Google and Yahoo taking center stage and reducing all efforts from the Redmond Company to vain attempts. Both Live Search and MSN are losing users to rival search engines, and Microsoft's momentum on the search market downslope is increasing with each passing month. Confirming statistics made available by Hitwise for May 2007, another Internet metrics company indicated a strong downward trajectory for Microsoft on the U.S. search engine market.

According to data published by Nielsen//NetRatings, Microsoft has dropped to 605 million searches the past month. In April 2007, 612 million queries were conducted via MSN and Live Search, so the drop is not spectacular, but it does contribute to decreasing Microsoft's hold on the search engine market. Additionally, the latest search erosion has taken Microsoft's year over year growth down to just 0.8% and the company's share of searches to only 8.4% from 9.0%. The Nielsen//NetRatings statistics come to prove that Microsoft is indeed struggling on the search market and that the Redmond Company has to do something to keep Live Search and MSN from drowning in the mass of anonymous Internet search providers. A limit Microsoft is dangerously close to.

By comparison, Google has yet again in May taken the lion's share of U.S. searches. With a share of no less than 56.3%, Google accounted the past months for in excess of 4 billion searches, and a year over year growth of 44.9%. Yahoo is the now classic runner up, having conducted over 1,5 billion queries. Yahoo's market share stands at 21.5%. Still, while at the top of the search engine market the situation is clearly defined, all the excitement is at the bottom. Here, both AOL and Ask.com have experienced rapid growth rates, and have the potential to take on Microsoft. With 381 million searches and 5.3% of the market, AOL is practically breathing down Microsoft's neck and Ask.com comes strong from behind with a share of 2%.