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 ...
LOL.
Perfect.
Well said.
MSN is a joke, on par with Netscape's home page, (the irony I'm sure will be lost on Quasimodo), chock full of cyber-waste best suited to People magazine or Tiger Beat.
I'm on a dialup, and I don't typically bookmark clutter aimed at the MassMind, much less make it a home page. (Google is mine, by the way).
For the record, I have a Hotmail account, (and Yahoo), and being on a dialup use Firefox to block a lot of the clutter.
Gates and crew could use some tips from this site:
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Trust me, break down their stats and I GUARANTEE You will find the bulk of "msn.com"'s traffic is simply from folks who use hot mail... many who don't use any other part of MSN and I bet you dollar to doughnuts many of them had their hotmail accounts before MS even bought the company.
MS on the internet has been a dud, the only "successes" they have are the ones they acquired. Just like MSNBC is a joke on Cable.. MSN on the internet is equally a joke.
Kwasi... GOOGLE is a VERB in our language now.. MSN is the butt of a joke.
Lets see other Microsoft failures... well there's MSNBC, MS MONEY, X BOX, etc etc etc...
Yes MS has deep pockets... but they don't always win.
Keep shilling well though, earn your pay.
Irrelevant, Little Precious?
I am the master. Without my clicks, without my visiting them and viewing their ads, they ain't squat.
You really are quite the MENSA member, aren't you?
Not at all. MS is free to ply their trade far and wide as far as I'm concerned. I just will go out of my way NOT to use it, as the over-priced, bloated products they sell are generally sub-standard to anything else on the market. After wrestling a weekend away with MS Money 2005, I have decided the less MS the better. And now, with Pocket PC support coming to Gentoo Linux, I'm hoping to be MS-free by the spring. I'm sure they will still make billions upon billions of dollars without my patronage, and that's just fine with me.
Before this thread, I didn't know they were still around.
BTW--didja know that Kwasi's new pride--MSN Search--runs on Linux? Evidently they don't trust Windows to keep up with the hoped-for traffic.
MSN = M$-AOL. What a turd MSN software is.
Have you tried the new MS money. Its at least equal to the latest quicken
What's truly unfortunate is that Microsoft did actually built it properly at http://search.msn.com, but it's hidden so 90% of their websites users will never find it. If they had scrapped their "new and improved" msn.com homepage in favor of the streamlined one at search.msn.com, I might have given more credence to their efforts. Heck, they could even have their "news" link go to their old page for the people that want it, while giving most of their searchers a simple, fast interface.
The problem is that MS, like most huge corporations, is actually run by program and department managers with competing views of what "should" be offered in their products, and just about everything they crank out is a compromise. I'm sure that there were people at MS who wanted the search.msn.com interface to be the default, but I'd bet good money that they were shot down by the departments responsible for collecting and publishing those "news" articles, and from the ad sales department who wanted their ads front and center. Rather than look at the best solution for the user, they were interested in preserving their own glory and departmental importance.
Google doesn't have that problem, and their management is far more centralized so these types of fubars don't happen. MS needs to take a page from the Google playbook and realize that they need to put the USER first, not their employees or profits. Built it, and the users will come. Built it right, and the users will come with profit. As they have built it, I don't see MSN search being noted for anything other than an "Also Ran" in the Search wars (which is tragic, because the search localization feature is actually pretty nifty).
Nintendo's target market has always been kids to 18 tops... Hasn't been or aimed at being #1 since the early 90s... glad to see you can keep up with the kiddie console.
MSNBC Profitable, and dead last in the ratings.. and as for their web site.. KEY word in your statment... WAS... and only was because every local NBC affilliate had their local news posted there, now that that is no longer the case... they are in the toilet too.
XBOX.. just made its first quarter profit? Wow.. its running on all cylinders now...
.NET Portal... another great winner (snicker) from MS.
Sorry, MS is not this unstoppable juggernaut that always wins... It doesn't. SQLServer nowhere near #1 DB.. Oracle isn't running scared... Passport is being dumped and frankly never got off the ground.... MS Money, never has or will outsell Quicken.. MSNBC has the same Viewership as a rerun of an XFL game....
This everything MS touches is Golden is nonsense. They have had more than a few stinkers and have been beaten in the marketplace, particularly in the internet arena many a time...
Keep shilling though... dance for those dollars.. earn that paycheck this week.
I'm not a MS basher but they do need a slap from time to time.
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