Microsoft Search gains ground - at a price

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 11 July 2007 03:48

Your IT - Home IT

MSN/Live Search joined Google in achieving a year-on-year increase in search volume, according to web metrics firm Compete. But that growth came at a price - or make that 'prize'.

According to Compete, much of the growth was generated from the Live Search Club, which offers prizes (ranging from ring tones and individual song downloads through Microsoft PC and Xbox software to an Xbox 360) for playing games with the aid of Live Search.

"In terms of market share, [the spike in use] represents just 5 percentage points that Live took away from other engines (mostly Google)," said Compete's Steve Willis. "If Microsoft can actually leverage this traffic to club.live.com into actual search users and string together a few more months like this, they could really threaten Google’s top spot."

Possibly. Compete's figures for May show 67 million people visited live.com in May, compared with nearly 120 million for google.com. Unless Microsoft is prepared to keep buying traffic to Live Search with prizes, there's nothing in Compete's analysis suggesting the trend will continue. Even if it does, what's in it except bragging rights? People using a search engine as part of a game are unlikely to take notice of any sponsored links or advertising - if they see them at all.

Compete's market share figures for June 2007 are:
Google 62.7%
Yahoo 19.6%
MSN/Live 13.2%
Ask 3.3%