Microsoft Threatens Google with a New and Improved Search Engine

Microsoft's representatives have resumed their series of Google threats, started in 2005 by Steve Ballmer, the company's Chief Executive Officer.

"What we're saying is that in six months' time we'll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google," said Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, during a press conference held by Reuters.

Microsoft says that it will accomplish this with the help of a new search engine which will first be launched in the US and England, and later in Europe.

Neil Holloway's statement is very similar to that made by Ballmer in August: "We really are going to win on the Web... if you get nothing else out of the whole day today, we are very, very, very serious and committed about driving our presence with that community, versus any and all competitors in the marketplace. It is a big opportunity for us. It is a job-one priority for our company, this transformation to services and the competition that it brings with Yahoo! and Google and everybody else."

According to Reuters, Holloway also said that Microsoft is not planning to integrate the new search engine in Vista, whose six official versions were recently announced.

On the other hand, the Redmond-based company intends to put the search engine at the disposal of the Windows Messenger and Hotmail users.

Although in 2005, the threats made by Microsoft didn't materialize in any services able to compete with Google's, in 2006, things might make a sudden turn, and Windows Live Expo was the first step in that direction.