For the past year, Microsoft has been talking up its plans to compete with Google by investing heavily in a super new search engine, but the reality is proving different. According to the latest Nielsen//NetRatings numbers for the US, Google now handles 49.5% of searches (up 31%) ahead of Yahoo's 24.3% (up 27%). However, MSN/Windows Live Search now has only 8.2%, and its share has fallen by 12%, year on year.
In April, Microsoft hired Steven Berkowitz, the chief executive of what was then Ask Jeeves, to sort out Live Search. He transformed Ask, but unless he does something pretty quickly, he could see his old company overtake his new one....
Note: As Microsoft's Dare Obasanjo has pointed out before: "Steve Berkowitz owns the sales, marketing and business aspects of Windows Live but not the products themselves. Steven Sinofsky and his subordinates, specifically Chris Jones and Christopher Payne, are responsible for Windows Live." Sinofsky used to run Microsoft Office.
