Google's Decline In Search Share Implies Thin Loyalty and a Fight for Mobile Mind Share as Microsoft's Answer To Gaining Users

Microsoft's Live Search was the only search provider to gain market share in June, but still trails Google and Yahoo!, with less than a fifth of Google's share. However, according to Microsoft numbers, 60% of Internet searchers use multiple search engines, and 30% of searchers use Live Search from time to time.

Live Search has gained new users by finding new ways to penetrate the Web search market, which strategically positions Google and Yahoo! on the defensivean unusual posture these days for the pioneering Google. Making Live Search a household name by spreading it across the Internet in different channels is the foundation for creating a loyal user base.

Microsoft's senior VP Satya Nadella acknowledged that they were not there in the beginning of this Web search story, we missed it, but we are getting back into the game in a major way. By not being one of the first movers, brand recognition was stunted, but the following excerpt from Intelligent Enterprise analyzes the actions Microsoft is using to intrude the Web search market.

Live Search gaining search share at the expense of Yahoo and Google in June. A recent promotion called Live Search Club that rewards users with ringtones, t-shirts and copies of Windows Vista may have helped bolster Live Search, but one month does not a watershed make.

The Live Search Club consists of a variety of games, the most popular being Chicktionary, a chicken-themed letter scramble puzzle. When a player enters a word formed from three or more letters, the game automatically triggers a related Web search. A single game of Chicktionary can add 35 or more queries to Microsoft's monthly total, even if the player isn't paying attention to the results.

I, in fact, fell victim to Microsoft's clever plan to increase search share. While doing research about the games I found out that I could earn a subscription to a magazine when I reach 1,000 points (averaging 20 points a game only means 50 games, that's not so bad) So, I played a few games, and now I just might be addicted. After one night of playing, only 800 more points to go and I'll have Cosmo.

However, further down the Intelligent Enterprise explanations of Microsoft's other methods of increasing search share are featured below.

One of the ways Microsoft may get back into the game is by moving beyond traditional Web search to better opportunities with less entrenched competition. For an example: mobile search, in which Microsoft has been investing heavily.

Last Friday, the company introduced Windows Live Mobile Search 2.0, available for Windows Mobile and J2ME phones and soon BlackBerrys. The downloadable version includes movie showtimes, local data including reviews, support for storing maps on the device, GPS support and turn-by-turn directions that can prompt users to re-route if they get lost. The mobile Web version supports image search and local directory listings.

Microsoft is quickly gobbling up start-ups, acquiring TellMe, which has a popular voice-activated mobile search service, European mobile advertising company ScreenTonic and mobile search technology provider MotionBridge, all earlier this year. 'We think mobile search is going to be a big growth market for us,' Nadella says. 'It gives us an opportunity to start on a level platform. If you look at the reviews, we often come in first.' 

Microsoft's unflinching determination to compete and win in the Web search market threatens both Google's and Yahoo!'s more PC-centric form of searching the Internet. This sudden shift of momentum indicates that Live Search's new channels appeal to users in one form or another depending on their needs. Although Microsoft's approach is undeniably similar to Google's try anything that produces profit philosophy, Microsoft's movement to expand the search engine itself outside of its usual realm is the next generation of search and one where Google's lead is decidedly less pronounced.