Google accounted for 68.29 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending May 31, 2008, Hitwise announced today. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 19.95, 5.89 and 4.23 percent respectively. The remaining 41 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.63 percent of U.S. searches.

Percentage of U.S. Searches Among Leading Search Engine Providers

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May-08
Apr-08
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Labels: Microsoft, Search, Yahoo

Microsoft has entered into a significant new deal with HP to have the Microsoft Search Bar distributed as the default on all new HP consumer computers, starting in 2009. Here’s the official press release from Microsoft.
The searchbar stakes are potentially very, very high. Most users don’t mess with default settings, which means that the default search will be used for a *lot* of searching at Microsoft Live. Microsoft’s overwhelming share of the browser market appeared to give them the advantage in this space early on. However Google’s search results superiority combined with legal actions against what was a virtually More»

Labels: HP, Microsoft, Search

I think this speaks for itself!
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Labels: Microsoft, msft, Search, Yahoo, YHOO

Udi Manber at Google suggests that they are working for better transparency in the rankings process but I recommend you do not hold your breath, because he’s certainly right about this:
For something that is used so often by so many people, surprisingly little is known about ranking at Google. This is entirely our fault, and it is by design.
Strategically I believe Google continues to make a mistake that ultimately is their great achilles heel, though Microsoft and Yahoo have been so busy fumbling their online balls they don’t seem to understand why more transparency is a good thing even More»

Labels: Search

Today Microsoft is launching the Live Search Cashback program where using Microsoft Live search will sometimes present you with listings for products that are related to your search query.
Following the cashback links or searching within the Cashback environment will lead to a comparison shopping feature of the Cashback program that Microsoft promises will surface the best deal of all they have listed after it offers you a discount on top of the company’s price.
Microsoft says:Each time you click a Live Search cashback listing, you’ll find great deals on the product you More»

Labels: live cashback, microsoft live, ms live, Search

Russia’s biggest internet firm Yandex plans to raise up to US$2 billion in an initial public offering that would give the company a public valuation of US$5 billion according to Reuters.

Yandex topped both Yahoo! and Microsoft with 528 million search queries (or 2.2 percent of European searches) in March 2008, according to comScore. Yandex reaches over 62% of Russian internet audience with more than 47% of all searches conducted in Russia, followed by Google, Rambler, More»

Labels: mail.ru, rambler, Search, Yahoo, yandex

For those of you trying to figure out where Microsoft is headed or trying to head here is another memo. This time from Satya Nadella, VP Search for Microsoft. On Monday we published Kevin Johnson’s email to employees on Microsoft’s Key Initiatives.

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Labels: Microsoft, Online Advertising, Search, social media

Washington Mutual aka WaMu, launched their multi-channel Whoo Hoo! Campaign back in Feb’08. As they put it, the Whoo hoo marketing and advertising campaign is all about tapping into customers’ emotional reactions to capture the essence of what it feels like to bank at WaMu.
The site is distinctly bright and flashy - literally and figuratively as it is built in flash - using decided large doses of bright blue, green, and magenta. What is interesting to note about it is that the reported uptick in search traffic to the WaMu site as a More»

Labels: marketing 2.0, Search

From: Kevin JohnsonSent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 1:30 PMTo: Platforms & Services Division; APSP FTE - Adv & Pub Solutions Platform; Employees.all.corp.adf@main.corp; Employees.all.adf@main.corpSubject: Online Services Strategy Update

We have been executing against the core strategy I first presented at our Financial Analyst Meeting in July 2007 to go after the growing opportunity in online services and advertising. Four pillars have formed the basis of our strategy:
1. Consolidate ad platform and win in display2. Innovate and disrupt in More»

Labels: displace advertising, Microsoft, Online Advertising, Search, social media, user experience, Yahoo

As social applications like Facebook, Myspace, Ning, and dozens of others attain sky high valuations few are focusing much attention on how poorly most of these social networking sites monetize their enormous traffic levels.
Microsoft’s Emerging Business guru Don Dodge, in an excellent post about Social Networking, notes an example where a Facebook application only manages to generate $6,000 to $15,000 per month revenue with page views of …. wait for it …. three hundred million per month. This disparity is so great I’m wondering a bit about his source for those numbers, but it is certainly More»

Labels: Facebook, facebook revenues, MySpace, Search, Social Networking