From: Rich Gauszka 

Yep. Ms has offered enterprise customers service and training credits to
use Live Search and have some sort of deal with Lenovo to include it. It
will be interesting to see if there are any changes in May market share

Also MS has had a couple of key departures from the Live Search team in the
past month. New opportunities, bailing out of a sinking ship,  or pushed
out the door?

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;249247929

Dane Glasgow, general manager of Windows Live Search, is leaving the
company, a spokesman for Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday.

Last month, Microsoft acknowledged the departure of its highest-ranking
search executive, Christopher Payne, corporate vice president of Windows
Live


mike wrote:
>> Microsoft Corp.'s sites lost 0.6 percentage points
>> to 10.3 percent, comScore data showed.
>
>
> Hasn't Microsoft been making a big push recently for their new Live
> Search functionality?
>
>  /m
>
>
>
> On Sat, 26 May 2007 11:49:25 -0400, "Rich Gauszka"
>  wrote:
>
>> Google's share of U.S. search market jumped in April
>>
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070525/wr_nm/google_search_dc_2;_ylt=AvOoesDHKL
WYlGwThIGC_stkM3wV
>> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. in April showed a
>> sharp gain in market share among U.S. Web search users, taking business from
>> its three closest rivals, research firm comScore Inc. said on Friday.
>>
>> Shares of Google jumped 1.7 percent, or $8.03, to $482.36 in Nasdaq trading
>> after the independent online audience measurement firm released data showing
>> Google held 49.7 percent of the U.S. search market, up 1.4 percentage points
>> over March.
>>
>> By contrast, the No. 2-ranked Web search provider, Yahoo Inc. saw its U.S.
>> search share in April fall 0.7 points to 26.8 percent. Microsoft Corp.'s
>> sites lost 0.6 percentage points to 10.3 percent, comScore data showed.
>>
>> IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com fell 0.1 percentage points in April to 5.1
>> percent of the U.S market, it said.
>>
>> The research firm releases data monthly and is the most widely accepted
>> measure of the Web search market competition.
>>
>> Google's 1.4 percentage point gain matched the combined losses of 1.4
>> percentage points by Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask. Google has gained month by
>> month over the past two years, taking share from rivals in 21 of the past 24
>> months.
>>
>> The 1.4 point gain in Google's April market share was only exceeded by the
>> 1.5 percentage point jump Google enjoyed last November, according to
>> comScore data.
>>
>> Time Warner Inc. sites, which include its AOL unit, held steady at 5.0
>> percent, the monthly survey of search activity showed.
>>
>> U.S. Web users performed 7.3 billion searches in April, 11 percent more than
>> a year earlier. Google sites attracted 3.6 billion searches by U.S. users
>> during April, comScore said.
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_14/b4028045.htm
>>
>>
>>
>> Microsoft has already squandered much of the time it spent developing the
>> search business. Until February, 2005, it licensed search technology from
>> two companies, Overture and Inktomi. Then it launched a homegrown search
>> engine, saying at the time that it would win over Web searchers with results
>> that were more relevant than Google's. Last fall, Microsoft Chief Executive
>> Steven A. Ballmer told BusinessWeek editors and reporters: "I
think in the
>> next three years, people will say, 'Hey, these guys are really a major
>> player in online consumer and advertising.'"
>>
>> There are a number of reasons that hasn't happened yet. First, Google has
>> performed near flawlessly. Early on, Google used its simple Web site to
>> cement the impression that to search is to "Google." And
because more people
>> search there, Google has more data with which to target relevant ads. The
>> result: By some estimates, Google nets at least 50% higher revenue per
>> search than No.2 Yahoo and other search sites--allowing Google to keep
>> investing more in improvements. For instance, on Mar. 21 it revealed a new
>> program to give advertisers the opportunity to pay only when someone
>> responds to an ad--by purchasing a product, filling out a form, or some
>> other action--rather than merely when they click on it. That may be more
>> attractive to advertisers who want concrete results.
>>
>> Meanwhile, Microsoft has managed to confuse searchers. It elbowed into the
>> search business on the back of its MSN franchise, a modestly successful
>> online services business known mostly for its dial-up Internet access
>> operation. Then Microsoft muddled its message in November, 2005, when it
>> launched the "Live" initiative designed to turbocharge
Web services,
>> including search, with programs running on PCs. But Microsoft continued to
>> use the MSN prefix on some Web sites, such as its portal and shopping page,
>> while using Windows Live for its e-mail and search services.
"You've got
>> people who know Microsoft really well who don't know what Live
means," says
>> Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of searchengineland.com, which covers the
>> business.
>>
>> Outside of the United States, various surveys put Google's share of the Web
>> search market at 60 percent or better.
>>

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