All entries for Thursday 27 September 2007

Was Live Search a 'piece of junk'? Or do Googlers search more?

Writing about web page http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/27/microsoft_unveils_major_update_to_live_search/

Thr Register’s story about the, now annual, relaunch of Microsoft’s Live search platform reported that MS now claim to be ‘as good as Google’.

The Reg went on to say:

According to the latest numbers from research firm comScore Media Metrix, Live Search is the third most popular search engine in the US, handling only 11.3 per cent of all web queries. Compared to Google’s 56.5 per cent, that’s a pretty paltry number. But Microsoft is quick to point out that Live Search reaches more people than this would seem to indicate. In August, the site handled only 11.3 per cent of all searches, but it was visited by 37 per cent of all searchers – i.e. almost 70 million people.

From our perspective, this indicates that the company’s existing search engine is a piece of junk. People go there, and then they quickly leave for another site. The Redmond outfit confirms that 46 per cent of its users are “not satisfied” with the current state of Live Search, with most complaining that search results aren’t as “relevant” as they should be.

The statistics of people who use a particular search engine have always added up to well over 100% as many searchers use more than one search engine. More searchers turn to Yahoo for the latest from BB but would use another for their work.

My research has shown that the heaviest searchers use Google and have the toolbar or deskbar installed. Often Yahoo has led the toolbar installation race but this is because Adobe has pushed it with their reader downloads. The more expert, heavy searchers, choose their tools.

So do most Live users think it is a ‘piece of junk’? I do not think so despite MS’s own poor satisfaction numbers. The heavy seach users will continue to use Google untill they find a better engine. ‘As good as Google’ may tempt some more to try Live but they will need a compelling reason to change their Googling habits.

Robert McGonigle : 27 Sep 2007 16:42 |  Tags: Google Live Search Microsoft Live Search Visitors |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem