Microsoft made available details related to the top searches introduced to the Windows Live search engine in 2006. The Redmond Company failed to provide figures to go with the top searches. In this regard, Microsoft has been losing its grip on the search engine market. MSN and Live Search are on a continuous descendant trajectory with a negative Year on year growth of -8%.

"Live Search went live in 2006, and it has been a great year for us and our users searching the Web. With the year drawing to a close, we decided to put together lists of the top searches for 2006. These lists are the result of studying our anonymous logs for the most searched queries in all the countries and regions our users search from," revealed Ivan Gonzalez, Program Manager, Live Search User Experience Team.

Here is the top 10 overall searches via Live Search: Ronaldinho, Shakira, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears,
Harry Potter, Eminem, Pamela Anderson, Hilary Duff, Rebelde and Angelina Jolie. Mariah Carey, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera lead the top celebrity image searches. Las Vegas, Mexico and Hawaii are the top travel searches in 2006.

"After putting together the list of the Top 10 searches for this year, we became curious about which queries gained the most popularity compared with last year. As you can see in the list of the top gainers from last year, the 2006 FIFA World Cup popularized some soccer related searches. Because soccer was so popular overall, we decided to see what else was popular in soccer searches in 2006. When you search the Web, we know you're looking for more than just web pages, so we put together a list of top searches for additional categories: celebrity images, news, products, and travel," added Gonzalez.