Posted on 02/01/2005 6:38:41 AM PST by KwasiOwusu
Microsoft on Monday replaced Yahoo's search technology with its own homespun software and will kick off a huge advertising campaign to supplant Google in consumers' hearts.
As expected, MSN, a unit of the software giant, has taken its Web search technology out of the laboratory, and placed it on MSN's newly redesigned home page in 25 countries. Two and a half years in the making, MSN Search will now be the focal point of the updated, lighter-weight site; and it is the subject of Microsoft's newest ad campaign, which includes television, print, Internet and outdoor promotions.
MSN Search Vice President Christopher Payne would not disclose ad spending, but he estimated that 90 percent of Americans, as well as U.K. and Japanese residents, will encounter the campaign. television ads, for example, will run during the Super Bowl, the Oscars and the Grammys. "Oh, you're going to notice it," he said.
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Google is still at the top of the heap, but its lead is shrinking. In December 2004, Google served about 34.7 percent of the market, down 0.3 percent from the previous period in 2003, according to ComScore Networks. During the same period, Yahoo jumped from serving 27 percent of the market to 31.9 percent. And MSN added a point to its position, going from 15.4 percent to 16.3 percent from December to December.
Key to MSN's strategy to win over the Web population is providing "answers" to queries, rather than millions of links, Payne said. While Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Google and smaller sites like Answers.com have sought to fill in search requests with answers to questions on the weather, entertainment and package tracking, MSN believes it can do one better with its encyclopedia software Encarta.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Yeah, I noticed that, and how Quasi completely ignored that profound fact. MSN running on Linux, not to mention Winduhs Updates??? How can Quasi possibly reconcile that? hehe
By the way:
And # 2, most new PC's have msn.com as their homepage, so msn.com has very hight traffic.
By your own admission, MSN's traffic numbers aren't honest numbers.
As with Linux, I'm sure you won't acknowledge that either, considering you have all the debating skills of a DU'er.
#1 on a third tier os.. yea, that's worth bragging about....
Sorry, you lose. You can't pick and choose the yardstick...
You want to talk marketshare... you lose... MSNBC a joke... You want to talk profitability.. 3 years to finally make a profit? You can't pick and choose which yardstick.
Reality is MS is full of less than stunning successess. and when they fail the MS PR machine just change the yardstick to make it sound better than it was.
MS PORTAL... gone... MSNBC... last in ratings, Rosanne Barr Nude would attract more people than MSNBC on a typical weeknight.... XBOX.. nowhere near a serious threat to the industry, and PS3's will be shipping long before XBOX figures out its a novelty.
MS is not a company that has turned everything its touched to gold... particularly in the INTERNET ARENA...
they launched their original search and claimed it would make them a player.. it didn't... they launched a new search claimed THIS TIME it will make them aplayer... it didn't... launched another one... same thing.. and now they are doing it again.. and they will get the same results...
You can spin spin spin all you like... but MS is no threat in the search arena. There is nothing about there new search that offers one single improvement over whats already and been out there for years.
Altavista leap frogged Lycos because they had a better search... AltaVista fell back to nothing because they didn't keep it going.... Goto lept up because they offered something new... and eventually fell as Google offered a better product... MS Search, like AOL Search has NEVER offered a better product.. at best they are attempts at keeping up.. and keeping up won't win you the gold.
Search is an arena where even today someone COULD leap frog GOOGLE if they COULD come out with a better search... unfortunatley MSN once again didn't do that..... Sorry... they aren't a threat or a player in search... and are no closer now than they were in the late 90s.
Keep up the PR though... make sure you get the latest talking points from your boss... wouldn't want folks to see through the marketing PR.
20 years in enterprise level software and I can tell you Windows Server is not the #1 installed server software out there, not even close.... might want to check your sources my friend... your PR department does a good job spinning, but get the facts jack.
I guess it's been a couple of months ago, but I gave their search a look, especially the image search. It was okay, and pretty much uncluttered, but Google is still better.
I looked today, and I didn't even see an image search choice. Either I missed it or they dropped it.
I freely admit there's something about MS that un-nerves me, considering their shady business practices, and how they've gone the Big Brother route, (much less how things that have no business accessing the net raises firewall alerts on my machine. I run ME, and it's even worse with my friends new XP rig he got this weekend). I just don't feel comfortable with them anymore. Not that I'm safe with Yahoo mail or anyone's search, but still....
Who cares about SOLD figures? It's the installed base that counts.
When did traffic from a home page become "dishonest" numbers?
Seeing as how I'm not in your league, must I spell out everything to you?
They're fudged, rigged, whatever words you wanna use. The fact remains that a lot of those hits aren't from conscious decisions to make MSN a home page. Some people are just too lazy to change the setting, or don't know how, or don't care, whatever. There's no way you can logically compare MSN to Google's hits, since Google doesn't have the home field advantage of OS's and/or browsers shipping with them as a default.
I notice that you haven't yet responded to my comments. Are you just here to blindly promote MS and spar with those who oppose it on ideological grounds, or are you here to discuss the very real flaws in the new MSN search and objectively debate whether or not it has any real possibility of out-googling Google?
Kwasi... MSN's "NEW" search has been available for MONTHS publicly... its not some secret.. if it had the potential of overtaking Google, it would already be dominating market share.. you don't know squat about the internet.....
Just because they officially announced it today, doesn't mean it became available today.. Its been publicly available for months.
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