Lately I keep seeing stories about Microsoft Search’s recent surge in market share. For Example:
Compete.com – June Search Market Share: Big Surprise from MSN
Techcrunch – Could Microsoft Knock Off Yahoo To Become Google’s Biggest Competitor?
Umm did anyone forget that they just sold 40 million copies of Windows Vista? Also this resets everyones default search engine to MSN And is much more integrated with the intarweb then xp ever was?
Seriously…. Wow big surprise Microsoft had more searches! I bet if I wrote a application to set everyones search engine and highly integrated it into there operating system my search engine would now have amazing market share!!
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August 15, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I find MSN to be a much better search engine than yahoo in many ways… relevancy seems to be one of them. When searching yahoo, within there top 10 results, 2-5 of the results are yahoos own content, i hate that. When searching for finance, yahoo lists there own finance section, suprisingly not the first result, making users think it is another site, exactly what they were looking for to begin with. MSN does seem to allow keyword stuffing which might upset some webmasters! For internal search results, these show in side bars rather than search results to allow a much better end user experience!
July 29, 2007 at 1:47 am
Now that I think about it, we need more competition..
July 26, 2007 at 3:22 am
And with them now just winning a 3 year advertising deal on Digg.com – things are looking up!
July 25, 2007 at 12:32 pm
so would I
July 23, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Great, cause MSN converts very well. I need more of that traffic!
July 23, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I would love to see equal competition against Google
Im not sure who I want more, Yahoo or MSN
July 20, 2007 at 6:42 pm
They still don’t refer much traffic. I would like nothing more than for Google to have some competition.
July 20, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Oh damn…and Shoe things its Microsoft only playing that way…i remember something like Dell..Google…not sure what was it *rubs his head*
July 20, 2007 at 4:42 pm
What in the hell are you talking about? I mean, your sarcasm it really makes me cry. Let me ask you something Mr Shoe, whats the default search engine to FireFox users?
It is a marketing strategy, and you as owner of AuctionAds should know very well this.
July 20, 2007 at 7:32 am
Dot Driven – I see what you are saying, but don’t most of the search engines do that, with maybe the exception of Google? Yahoo gets loads of traffic from it’s free email. Now to think of it, I bet Google is too.
July 20, 2007 at 2:33 am
Microsofts in your face – shove our products down your throat approach to business really pisses me off. Then I get even madder when I see it works…
July 19, 2007 at 11:52 am
What a lot of people are missing in these numbers and spikes are the waves of searches coming from their club.live.com where users play games that are tightly integrated with Live search and they earn tickets to win prizes (Like Vista and Zunes…big surprise lol).
Although some are crediting the spikes to this what most are missing is that a good percentage of those spikes are because of the massive cheating that was going on with this game. There were numerous huge forums and tens of thousands of users using macros and bots to play the games for them (as well as fake searches) earning tickets in minutes rather than months. So tens of thousands of users running millions of quiries 24/7 and the numbers are going to be jacked. Watch as the spike turns the other way as they finally caught on and have stopped most of the cheaters from botting the games
.
More details on my blog ;P
July 19, 2007 at 8:32 am
This is their only winning tactic. They just incorporate everyone else’s programs into theirs in hopes of taking over. Browsers, searches, PDF, and anything else they can think of. Now they are turning to furniture with that Microsoft Surface.
July 19, 2007 at 8:27 am
LOL, Yahoo more aggressive? I don’t even think that is possible. Yahoo can be bested by almost anyone at this point. They used to be relevant but seems like they willingly gave up their authority status.
July 19, 2007 at 8:06 am
The goal of all corporations is to maximize profit. By nature all corporations are greedy.
July 19, 2007 at 3:23 am
Microsoft seems to be rocking and it is an alarm for Google
July 19, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hm, I wish it was Google that would go 3rd.
July 18, 2007 at 10:15 pm
You can design your product in any way you like. That’s life.
July 18, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Screw vista, and honestly, screw Microsoft. The only good thing to come out of Microsoft was 98 and XP. They have bigger market share because they basically own the god damn market with their monopolization of windows.
July 18, 2007 at 1:54 pm
As mentioned in the other comments, does Windows Vista say it all or what?
July 18, 2007 at 11:23 am
I’ve never really used it either, other than to see what my rankings were for certain terms so that I could compare it to Google and Yahoo
July 18, 2007 at 8:35 am
I’m still shocked that Microsoft hasn’t done more to stay on top of the search engines. They wouldn’t be in the top three if not for them being the default browser. With their money and resources they could rank in the top two if they tried. I guess they are spending more time on software. Maybe that’s the best for them…
July 18, 2007 at 7:53 am
Thats right
No one can beat Google in search marketing!
July 18, 2007 at 4:01 am
No matter what they’re still going to be behind Google!
July 17, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I don’t have Vista yet either, I am waiting for the same reason as you (the compatibility issues). More and more programs will become compatible as time passes so pretty soon we should be fine.
July 17, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Yeah, that and Microsoft’s market share from Vista installs will slowly decline as the newbies get their computer set up the way they like it (e.g. Google as the default engine).
July 17, 2007 at 2:44 pm
It’s incredible that every time Microsoft releases a new operating system, they get a fresh chance to greatly increase their search engine market share.
July 17, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I use them all, but mostly google. If I dont get what I want from google, I move on to yahoo
July 17, 2007 at 11:48 am
I have used Google and Google only since it has came out. Pretty amazing to think about. I dont think Microsoft will ever be a threat, even if they do hijack your computer with their own search
July 17, 2007 at 11:48 am
Id use the Shoemoney search every day if it came integrated
July 17, 2007 at 8:51 am
It sure will. How integrated is it? I’ve been seriously holding off on Vista – wasn’t sure if all of my applications would run correctly on it yet.
July 17, 2007 at 5:03 am
lol this was my initial reaction too. There so many people ou t there that doesn’t change the default search engine in IE7, so it’s no wonder. On the other hand maybe Yahoo should start being a bit more aggressive.
July 17, 2007 at 1:46 am
i think we can all laugh along with this article and at the same time feel badly ashamed and embarrassed for msn’s bitter sweet accomplishment
July 17, 2007 at 12:17 am
… feed me Seymour.. feed..me…
July 17, 2007 at 12:13 am
See, the key to competing with giants like Google and Yahoo is to either be or become a large corporation, like Microsoft! Keep on blogging, and you will have enough money to compete with giants like these! Not only that, but you’ll be able to do it in 10 minutes of your spare time! Send me $10 in food stamps and I’ll show you how. Throw in another $5, and you’ll own the Brooklyn bridge! Seriously, though, is this an ego thing with them.. or do they need… more… and… more.. give.. me.. more…
July 16, 2007 at 6:30 pm
good point
July 16, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I think MS needs to move forward in a serious way an not just bank on its OS to carry it.
July 16, 2007 at 4:06 pm
It does suck. I dont even pay attention to msn to be honest. Its a shame that a company with so many billions of dollars cant do something better.
July 16, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Live search or MSN Search or whatever they want to call it, really sucks. Ive been doing websites for a long time and pretty much they dont rank sites worth a crap. I dont really know of any website that rank well for msn without optimizing for them. Who is going to optimize for them when google gets over %50 of the search market share alone.
July 16, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I’ve never really used MSN search in forever. Imagine how many people out there are like me…
July 16, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Who goes up and who goes down in the numbers from month to month depends on who you ask–complete.com will have one number, ComScore will have different numbers, Alexa will have different numbers…and so on. It really depends on who you ask. Microsoft certainly is one of the top three, and I just consider Yahoo!, MSN, and Google the top three, I don’t really look too much at the numbers, to be honest with you.
July 16, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Should I believe that MS Vista installations increased their search market share.. difficult to believe so, but pretty much possible.
July 16, 2007 at 1:09 pm
When I installed IE7 on my XP machine, the default search was MSN, but then when I hit the Google homepage, Google showed a little ‘pop-up’ that asked me if I wasnt to make my default search engine Google and of course I did. I bet the same thing happens for Vista IE7 users.
July 16, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I was given a choice the first time I ran IE7 on Vista. I don’t recall there even being a default. You just had to pick one… and I picked Google.
July 16, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Especially given the fact that 98% of users don’t know how to reset the default search. Their market share is only going to increase as people’s old computers wear out and they are forced to buy machines with Vista.
July 16, 2007 at 12:19 pm
They should just make their search better instead of playing these games
July 16, 2007 at 12:08 pm
In the end who cares? Google is still #1 and aren’t losing the position any time soon
July 16, 2007 at 12:02 pm
My issue of vista came set with google….. althought I may have been given a choice upon setup.
July 16, 2007 at 11:52 am
MSN/Microsoft/Live/Whatever Search: Bigger and more irrelevant than ever!
July 16, 2007 at 11:51 am
First you need people to buy your application, if you get 40.000.000 people to buy it, then there is a chance.
July 16, 2007 at 11:33 am
Yea Vista definitely played a role in it and it will continue to do so as more copies sell. Great post, made me laugh.
July 16, 2007 at 11:26 am
Yeah they also made one of their gaming sites users use their search engine for some game or something, that added like millions of extra queries.
July 16, 2007 at 11:25 am
Great Points, Jeremy. Glad you’re able to see the forest through the trees on that one.