Live Searches Drop Below 1 Billion

August U.S. search share data shows ugly declines for Microsoft in 2008.

The month’s data, released today by ComScore, is but a snapshot of a longer trend. I went back to the historical data, which shows how big Google gains are compared to Microsoft losses.

Microsoft’s share of U.S. searches dropped 4 points, to 8.3 percent, between July 2007 and August 2008. During the same time period, Google gained 7 points, to 63 percent search share. For Microsoft, the heavier blow will be psychological. In August, its number of searches dropped below 1 billion, approaching the dregs occupied by Ask and AOL.

U.S. Internet users conducted 11.7 billion searches in August, 7.4 billion through Google. But, when including YouTube, Google searches top 10 billion.

The numbers should greatly disappoint Microsoft product managers, particularly considering how much improved Windows Live Search is. I now tend to use Live Search alongside—and sometimes instead of—Google. Live Search typically delivers different results and often better ones. But better often doesn’t win the market, otherwise DVDs would have replaced Betamax not VHS, and Netscape Communicator would have bested Internet Explorer 4 a decade ago.

Source- Microsoft Watch