Joe says:
"Matters can only get worse for Microsoft. Google sees the effectiveness of Microsoft bundling strategies. So Google has primed Chrome for rumored OEM deals. Think, people! Google doesn't take the beta moniker off anything—not quickly anyway. But, whoa, Chrome is good enough after only 100 days of testing. Now why is that?"..................

As far as "matters can only get worse for microsoft," I totally agree with that statement. And Joe, as a microsoft watcher, you must see the parallels to ancient Rome and microsoft. Also, as far as it gettings worse for microsoft, that is not necessary a bad thing for computer users in general, in fact, I would say that it is the best thing possible.

About 3 years ago, microsoft was in almost total control, at their height of desktop penetration with 95.3%, and like Rome, since the advent of Vista, microsoft has started on the long road to its decline and fall. Why I am not worried about Goolge is they are simply better in almost, or every way than microsoft.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Thanks Marco!

You too!

@Marco
Let me really wish you a Merry Xmas, as it seems someone has already done so in my name. Since they can't post under their own name, must be they have no ideas of their own.

Joe, can you please stop mentioning that you have/had the flu in every post?? WE GET IT.

crappy health = crappy blog posts

this post was just fine, no need to bring up your health plights.

Thanks! =)

Thanks The Hand (True and false)...it's christmas!

We should all get together and invent a totally new browser and call it the

Solstice Taco Jupiter Browser.

Merry Christmas to all and sundry.

Solstice Taco Jupiter Browser.
I think they would have a chance only if they promise not to keep your personal data past the date that marks the end of the Mayan Calendar!
(oct 23 20011?)

Joe,
"On Friday, Dec. 29, ComScore released November U.S. search share numbers,"

What year are you talking about? 2007 Dec 29 is on Sat.
Did you mean Dec 19?

So what's the point I'm missing then?
First of all I am still under the assumption that search is only a good thing because of advertising revenue.
If you want a product searching for it will help you buy it. So in that case search advertising is good.
If you are looking for something and run into something that really interests you, you might buy it. Again search advertising is good.

If you want to watch an online movie how will search advertising help you? Seeing you will not be able to watch any of the movies you would want to buy, nor would you be able to buy the movies you are watching.
So it's just search for search's sake.
How is that a good thing?

I think some of the people on the search team need to watch the same internal training videos that have been inflicted on me. There was one which used a very nice phrase: "No pain; no change." If people aren't experiencing any pain in their current situation, they're not going to try and change it.

Live search is a great search engine, but the majority of people are happy with Google. People aren't likely to suddenly decide to switch search providers for no reason so they aren't likely to even try out Live to see if they like it.

That sounds somewhat defeatist. I do think Live search is good, but I'm realistic about the odds of half the internet users suddenly going, "Hang on, what's this Live search thing no one ever talks about?"

'That sounds somewhat defeatist'

Only if you are MS'worker or MS'Fan ,if you are pragmatic it just sound real.
--------
Hi Jess

Humm... Jess Meats... What a beautiful and seductive name!

@Jess
So basically Microsoft's saviour in this matter would be Google's downfall. Which is probably only going to happen if they "do evil"...

Plus I've given live search a shot... and it took me longer to find the results I wanted than with google. Except for images. No pages, just images makes a hell of a lot more sense to me.

So not only do they need people Google to be bad in some manner, they need to get better themselves too.

Apple has proven that a company can significantly increase its market share against tremendous odds. Moreover, M$' search engine will continue to play catch up so long as they don't advertise it. For example, I believe most non-IT people would say that live maps is superior to google maps. And something like mapping could easily drive many more searches, but again, M$ has to let Joe Consumer know about their alternative.

"I believe most non-IT people would say that live maps is superior to google maps."
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I wouldnt. If we are talking maps, its more likely that google maps IS THE ONE that non-it users know. Ive yet to find a non-it person that can tell me what MSlive is.
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Jay, Im sorry to say this, but I am suspicious of your posts. Please let me explain.
You use the term "M$" for Microsoft, which is something people will identify with those who do not support MS. People who use M$ generally go on to put MS in a bad light. You however go on to praise MS. I could be forgiven for thinking the use of M$ is to convince people that you are NOT a MS supporter, but have good things to say about them. Like I say, that is my interpretation.
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Your posts also have the other warning signals, not explanation as to why they are better and no explanation of these mythical "non-it" people who think live maps are better.
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Truth is, Google Maps are being used by both non-it and it pros alike. Truth is no matter what other products are out there, Google maps appears to be satisfying its users by providing the information and facilities they require.
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I should never have stayed away for a couple of days. I turn my back for 5 minutes and all the outlandish claims come crawling out of the woodwork.
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Ill end on a little cracker of a comment "M$ has to let Joe Consumer know about their alternative."
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Jay, care to comment on what went wrong with Zune then?
How about xbox360?
What about Vista?
Do we need to go on?

LIES!

Joe says:
Analysis. Microsoft's latest effort to raise search share is a failure.................

Really??? Say it ain't so Bill. But then when you use it, and get the discount at M$ participating retailers, you then find out, that google would have found you several links that would have saved you even more money, without clicking though near as many links too. Why, because M$ search is a poor product, and this was designed to make money, as everything M$ does, by selling people overpriced products.

@Goblin
"what went wrong with Zune then? Howabout xbox360?"

This is pretty off-topic, but... When Zune launched, the iPod had around 75% mp3 player market share. Zune has about 5% of mp3 player market share today, and the iPod still has around 75%. Zune was only sold in the US until it recently started selling in Canada. Microsoft is saying that it will probably start selling in Europe this fall. It's a good mp3 player (not necessarily the best) and they haven't given up. Besides, would you ask what went wrong with MacOS X? It's still only got about 5% of desktop computer OS market share to Microsoft's roughly 90%. Apple will keep fighting for OS market share, just like Microsoft will keep fighting for mp3 player market share. I like MacOS way better than Windows, but Apple computers are way more expensive than PCs. The point is, products that have their niche aren't going to go away despite their small sliver of market share. And when it comes to search, no slice of the pie is too small. Microsoft will keep fighting to increase it.

Regarding Xbox360, what are you talking about? It's been nothing but good news for Microsoft this year. It became profitable and increased its market share putting it well past the PS3. Only the Wii is ahead of it, but the average Xbox360 purchaser buys two more games than the average Wii purchaser, resulting in hundreds of millions more in revenue for Microsoft on game sales and Xbox Live subscriptions.

Vista... nothing much to say, there. It's had a pretty rough time. ;)

@The Hand
"But then when you use it, and get the discount at M$ participating retailers, you then find out, that Google would have found you several links that would have saved you even more money... because M$ search is a poor product, and this was designed to make money, as everything M$ does, by selling people overpriced products."

Really? I find that the cashback search produced comparable results to the Google product search, but for some things, like anything on EBay, it was better to use the cashback search. After all, if you're going to buy something on EBay anyway, you might as well get cash back for it by finding it through the Microsoft cashback search.

I think the biggest problem with Microsoft Live Search is that they don't have anything like adWords/adCents. Google has thousands of websites automatically doing searches every time the pages load and populate those "Ads by Google" bars. So, one, they get a higher search count and two, they get more revenue from web surfers clicking on those ads. This has got to be on the top of Microsoft's to-do list for search. If they offer webmasters the ability to place Live Search ads on their site and pay them more money (a higher percentage of the $ per click perhaps) than Google pays, I could see the possibility of Microsoft gaining search share.