MSN's Live Search Market Share Increase? Google Invincible?

An Apparent Increase in Searches Served by MSN's Live Search Creates a Stir

Compete reports MSN's share is on the rise, and a few webmasters predict a new Top Dog in the Search Industry in a decade. Check the posts in this thread. You gotta love it.

Here's the part of this that is interesting to me...

Google leads the search industry because of relevance. People using the Inernet believe that Google's search results are superior. Whether they are or not - ask any marketer - means slightly less than the fact they are perceived to be superior.

And, as long as that public perception remains true, Google will handle the lion's share of searches. Right? And, what other search engine name is becoming a verb in popular English? Ever hear anyone say "...google it"? If you're looking for details about that recent buzz over Microsoft's deal with Novell, just google it. (I'm going to do just that in a minute, because it's relevant).

So, it would seem that Google is already deeply entrenched, and becoming even more so. They're number one and likely to be number one for a long, long time. Google is so strong, and so far ahead of their competitors, some analysts predict a 90% market share for Google. Could this be right?

Maybe, but...

Think Micorsoft. Let it roll around in your thought space for a moment. What does the name imply? 

Bundles Services? Anti-trust litigation? Raw Power? Foresight? Longevity? Shrewd competitor?

Micorsoft's Not-So-Far-Off Revolution

Microsoft's deal with Novell, November 2006, wasn't their first hand shake with the Open Source community, but it started some of the most lucid discussion about how Microsoft might effect everything from GPL licensing  to the operating system running on most of the world's desktops. You can get a sense for the stir it created by googling (see i told you it was becoming a verb) Microsoft's deal with Novell, especially in the 2nd and following SERPs pages. And, you may find this 3 Linux vendors decline the Microsoft patent deal interesting.

They followed it up with similar deals, even somewhat relaxing their grip on their own proprietary rights, in order to bring their systems closer to unity with the open source community in both the legal sense and in actual systems integration.

As the Internet grows in potential, reaches more of that potential, becoming more of a power tool for business than ever, Microsoft is positioning itself for a revolution. Bundled services, anti-trust litigation,  Foresight and Shrewd Competition will be watchwords again for this technology giant. You see, Microsoft intends to "bundle" the potential of the Internet, and give it to you on your desktop PC.

The Hottest Internet Model and Microsoft's "Cloud OS"

What we see more and more these days is solid web applications becoming successful web development platforms. Google that, if you'd like, or check out CNET's Killer Apps... etc. 

I won't run through the list of all the great apps that became platforms. Google is one. Facebook is another. and, terrific as they are (and you could check out Google's code sharing for some insight) they may be a drop in the bucket compared to Microsoft's goals.

Imagine 500 million MS users suddenly empowered to develop web sites and web applications on microsoft's code base, with easy as a toggle switch integration of modularized "services" spanning a range so broad that most companies can point and click the entire range of services they need to provide their consumer base.

Unthinkable? Undoable? Remember, this is MICROSOFT.

Their XBAPS  (XAML browser applications) are in place, and the Microsoft Homepage can probably fill in the blanks for you about how you're going to get this up and running. It's all in the  .NET Framework Developer Center 

Check out Silverlight, and Expression Studio.

But, what does this have to do with search market shares? Nothing.... yet.