mack - 5:01 pm on Mar 4, 2009 (gmt 0)

I agree that so far Microsoft have failed to make large inroads into the search market, but they have went from non existant to 3rd largest player in what is a fairly short time. Some may concider them as 2nd largest player depends on your stats.

Will Microsoft continue to gain on Yahoo and Google. I think a lot of this comes down to what improvements Microsoft can make to their search offering and how they can market it. It amazes me how little has been done at the OS level to leverage users to search using Live. I have a suspicion that getting access to web search will be very easy in Windows 7.

One massive point to remember is that search is not Microsofts cash cow. Software is. The question is how much are Microsoft prepared to invest in crushing Google, who have a clear interest in moving into Microsoft teritory. In order to safeguard their key business areas Microsoft may need to beat Google at search. This will not be easy.

Google used to be seen as the iconic online good guy. This image has been damaged quite a lot recently, but I am not sure the average user would even notice this.

Going back to can google be beat? yes they can. When you compare the three top players the gap is closing when you compare results. it all comes down to public oppinion.

Mack.