Posted 07/10/09 at 04:30:01 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Microsoft has pinned all its hopes on Bing. Its latest take on internet search has got off to a reasonable start. Bing managed to workup a bit of hype and so far hasn’t really disappointed in terms of performance. Now, the numbers are pouring in and they are also more than passable. Stats from Compete.com for the month of June – Bing’s inaugural month – show that it wasted no time in becoming the 13th most visited website in the U.S with 49.57 million visitors. It also happened to breeze past behemoths like Digg, Twitter and CNN. However, the summit still isn't in sight.

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Posted 05/03/09 at 12:14:39 AM by Justin Kerr

For most users, Microsoft's Live Search is little more than a default setting on new installations of Internet Explorer. This perception is part of why Microsoft has always struggled to gain market share against Google & Yahoo who both hold the number 1 & 2 positions by a fairly large margin. Microsoft has struggled to come up with a strategy for sometime now, but it seems clear that its new strategy is to shed the past by dropping the Windows Live brand in favour of Kumo.

The timeframe for the redesign has been kept secret so far, but according to a forum posting on Neowin, Microsoft has started a clock in the lobby of its search headquarters that is counting down to June 2nd. This date, coincidentally enough, coincides with a speech being given by the head of Microsoft's online services division at the Search Engine Expo in Seattle. It is here that Dr Qi Lu is expected to formally announce Kumo and demonstrate the upgrades to the search engine. The timing also lines up well with a new ad campaign which is planned for the summer. So far Microsoft hasn't commented on Kumo specifically, and executives have hinted that it is but one of several names being considered at this point.

Early screen shots show several potential improvements that will allow searches to be broken down by relevant categories, making it easier to find information when you search for more general terms. For example; if you search for “Microsoft”, Kumo might give you a category for Windows, Office, Xbox, etc.

What do you think of Kumo as a brand name? What would you call it? And finally, will this get you to use Microsoft Search?

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Posted 04/19/09 at 01:00:41 PM by Justin Kerr

The pirate bay is taking on water at a frantic pace, and while an appeal in the trial is still likely, odds are pretty good that site may soon be brought down once and for all through a court injunction. Truth is though; the Pirate Bay brought this down on themselves. By picking up the torch that Napster and Kazaa dropped, they painted a huge bulls eye on their chest and blatantly taunted the movie and music industry by posting take down notices on the site, a sign of open defiance.

Though they may soon pay the price for these actions, it remains to be seen who the movie and music industry would consider to be “next on the list”. Tracker sites like Mininova, isoHunt, and Demonoid come to mind, but one searching tool rules them all, Google. Type any movie or TV show into Google followed by the word “torrent” and every tracking site, including many lesser known domains; spill their results for the world to see. In fact according to Google Trends, searches for the term “wolverine torrent” quadrupled after the movie was leaked onto peer-to-peer networks.

Google claims they are quick to remove offending content, but it’s a never ending battle. When one torrent link dies, dozens more take their place.

Can Google be held legally liable for this? It’s hard to say but with the Pirate Bay gone, we may soon find out! What do you think?

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Posted 02/15/09 at 02:35:17 PM by Justin Kerr

When you consider the complexity of modern day web pages, it’s actually a bit of a miracle that search engines work as well as they do. Dealing with duplicate links, especially off pages such as Amazon that may promote an individual product a thousand times or more has always been a challenge. Finally, after years of debate, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are putting the past behind them to solve this age old issue. The solution is a simple tag that will be added to the standard link format called “canonical”.

The tag is designed to solve issues associated with multiple URL’s pointing to the same page, but may also be helpful when multiple versions of a page exist. Currently, the search engines employ a process that looks at the structure of URL’s to look for similarities. This generally works pretty well, but is far from perfect. It is considered to be somewhat rare for search engines to come together on any issue, but it isn’t unprecedented.  In 2006 they joined forces to put unanimous support behind sitemaps.org, and in June of 2008 they jointly announced new standards for the robots.txt directive. Matt Cutts of Google and Nathan Buggia of Microsoft claim this new approach should help reduce the clutter on the web, and improve the accuracy of all search engines.

Even though these tags won’t completely solve all the duplicate problems found on the web, it should significantly enhance the indexing performance of search engines, particularly on e-commerce sites. The new tags will be discussed in depth at this year’s Ask the Search Engines panel at SMX West.

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Posted 12/01/08 at 03:28:30 PM by Mark Edward Soper

Adding fuel to the rumor we reported recently that Microsoft is ready to dump the name Live Search for its search engine and redub it "Kumo," ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley reports today that Microsoft has:

• Redirected some search servers to the Kumo.com domain
• Registered variations including Kumosearch.com, Kumopics.com, and others

As Foley also points out, the bad news for Live Search just keeps on coming, with the latest being a glitch that fouled up promised huge cashback savings on Black Friday. So, what do you think? Is it time for Microsoft to turn Live Search out to pasture - or is more than a name change in order? Join us after the jump with your prescription for what ails Microsoft's search strategy.
 

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Posted 11/30/08 at 09:20:39 PM by Justin Kerr

Microsoft and its Windows Live brand has tried everything, right down to paying users to pry market share from search juggernaut Google, but so far nothing has worked. Popular rumors have even began speculating that the Redmond based software giant may be attempting to rebrand its search service. If this turns out to be true however, will Kumo or Yahoo Live be the new brand surging out of the gate? According to The Times of London, Microsoft is in talks again with Yahoo to acquire its search business for an estimated $20 billion dollars. AOL CEO Johnathan Miller and former Fox Interactive President Ross Levinsohn are reportedly heading up the negotiations.

So far Microsoft has declined to comment on the article and certainly, there is no guarantee that even if talks are in progress, that any agreement could be reached. Presumably however, the fact that Yahoo stockholders are faced with a share price of $11.51, down from a 52 week high of $30.25 might have put them in a slightly more agreeable mood. And now that Google has backed off and Jerry Yang is stepping down as CEO, who knows what the future holds. Steve Ballmer in the past has described the prospect of a search partnership with Yahoo as “an interesting possibility” but again, it’s too early to speculate on the outcome.

Will Yahoo search really benefit Microsoft? Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

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Posted 11/08/08 at 09:58:50 PM by Justin Kerr

Ever heard the expression,” if you can’t beat them, join them”? It turns out this is an attitude shared by the executives over at Sensis, the advertising and directories arm of Australia’s largest telecommunications company Telstra. Starting in Q1 2009, all of the Sensis business listings will be incorporated into Google’s mapping service. Google will then be implemented to power the native search and mapping functionality on the site. Sensis’s decision has been widely criticized as an admission that could not compete with Google, but I would argue it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Many larger and deeper pocketed rivals have attempted to duplicate Google’s success over the years with arguably little to no lasting success.  Yahoo and Live search aside anyone else remember Cuil?

The announcement was made at Google’s headquarters and Sensis CEO Bruce Akhurst said the deal would allow them to focus on their yellow pages business listings. Both parties have openly denied that any talks are taking place with regards to a merger, and according to Sensis the deal is only intended as a means to share revenue. Neither party is revealing any specifics as to the terms or financial agreements, but presumably Sensis determined it was the best way to save market share. According to Nielsen NetRatings, Google Maps serves just over 2.5 million Australian visitors, with a mere 1.2 million using the Sensis Wherels service. Even more dramatic are the search numbers with 9.3 million Australians using Google, and only 184,000 users choosing Sensis.

Another search engine bites the dust, can anyone take on Google? Hit the jump and let us know what you think.

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Posted 10/30/08 at 05:11:44 PM by Andy Salisbury

Straight out of the “surprise!” file, Microsoft’s Live search engine is down in usage while Yahoo’s has finally gained some ground. Despite Microsoft’s offering serious perks to the members of Club Internet to use their search engine, they just weren’t able to come through in traffic, as claimed by researcher ComScore Inc.

According to ComScore, Yahoo’s portion of the Internet search engine pie has gone up from 19.6 percent to 20.2 percent. Unfortunately for Microsoft though, their percentage has dropped from an already low 8.9 percent down to 8.5 percent. Not surprisingly, Google took care of 62.9 percent of the searches made, and still has a very demanding lead.

At this rate Microsoft is going to have to cook up some pretty exciting perks to lure users back over to Live. (Try this one out: “Search for a date with Scarlett Johansson.” Thank me later.)

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