14 DAY TRIAL // As Microsoft launched its version 2.0 of the search engine under the Windows Live umbrella brand at the end of September, the combined results of Live Search and MSN dove to the bottom of the search pool the past month. According to statistics published by comScore for the U.S. in September, Microsoft not only remains that traditional underdog of the search market, and the bronze winner in a three horse race, but the Redmond company is also getting cozy in its position by dropping a whole percent from August.
"In September, Google Sites maintained its position atop the core search rankings with 57 percent of U.S. searches, gaining a half share point versus the previous month. Yahoo Sites ranked second with 23.7%, followed by Microsoft Sites (10.3 %), Ask Network (4.7 %) and Time Warner Network (4.3 %)," comScore revealed.
At the end of September, Microsoft introduced Live Search 2.0, as the next stage in the evolution of the Windows Live search engine. Now indexing in excess of 20 billion webpages and with enhancements across the board, but especially in areas of vertical search, speed, usability, additional content and relevance, Live Search 2.0 was positioned by Microsoft to gun for Google's dominance on the search engine market.
However, being rolled out at the end of September, the impact of Live Search 2.0 will only be felt this month. However, considering the amount of publicity that version 2.0 of Live Search has got, it is likely that Microsoft will once again gain ground in the detriment of Google and Yahoo. It only remains to be seen if the Redmond company will actually be able to keep the eyeballs it attracts as a loyal audience.
"In the September 2007 analysis of the Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the pack with 6.6 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with nearly 2.4 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (999 million), Time Warner Network (843 million) and Fox Interactive Media (492 million). Despite the decline in overall search activity in September, Ask.com saw a 10-percent gain versus August", comScore added.