". . . it’s mostly people that are searching for files on their own hard drive who accidentally click the ’search the net’ button." If that theory is correct almost all Live Search sessions would come from Windows systems running IE. Sure enough, they found that an overwhelming 99.82% of all Live Search sessions are Windows machines running IE.
A 90% market share is good for something. It kept the Live Search market at 2.4% last month. IE’s market share is 75%. If Firefox, 18% market share, users were just as likely to use Live Search as any other search engine, you’d expect to see 18% of Live Searches on that browser.
Search is THE problem as storage capacities grow. Microsoft’s weak showing means they aren’t going to beat Google at the current game. MS needs to put it’s substantial muscle finding the Next Big Thing in search. It also suggests that taking over Yahoo won’t help either; they haven’t had any better luck against Google, either!
A 90% market share is good for something. It kept the Live Search market at 2.4% last month. IE’s market share is 75%. If Firefox, 18% market share, users were just as likely to use Live Search as any other search engine, you’d expect to see 18% of Live Searches on that browser.
Search is THE problem as storage capacities grow. Microsoft’s weak showing means they aren’t going to beat Google at the current game. MS needs to put it’s substantial muscle finding the Next Big Thing in search. It also suggests that taking over Yahoo won’t help either; they haven’t had any better luck against Google, either!
Test 1 - single word search for Neowin:
Google says - about 2,990,000
Live says - 571,000
Yahoo says - about 3,880,000
Test 2 - phrase search for Neowin Events
Google says - about 136,000
Live says - 147,000
Yahoo says - about 2,200,000
Test 3 - phrase search for "Neowin Events"
Google says - about 91
Live says - 8
Yahoo says - about 34
Quite a difference, but as we all know quantity doesn't always mean quality.
The first page of each search seems to contain the same links but in a different order.
Google has the edge for me, but I welcome competition and innovation as it should alspo bring better search tools.
You always end up getting something completely unrelated when you use search engines other than google.
... where work is needed, actually.
"Sure enough, they found that an overwhelming 99.82% of all Live Search sessions are Windows machines running IE."
The error is that Live Search is the default search for IE browsers. In IE7 and above, Live Search is the default toolbar search engine, and in all IE browsers, if the user opts to set MSN as their home page, they're also using Live Search there. Therefore, people who use Live Search tend to use IE as a browser.
Furthermore, I've noticed that people who use Firefox are more tech savvy and know how to change default search engines. I bet a similar test would show that a majority of Firefox users use Google. After all, it is the default...
There should be a way to get conclusive data. If you search the Web from the Desktop search bar, the phrase "FORM=IE7RE" gets added to the search query URL.
Duh!!
"Sure enough, they found that an overwhelming 99.82% of all Live Search sessions are Windows machines running IE."
The error is that Live Search is the default search for IE browsers. In IE7 and above, Live Search is the default toolbar search engine, and in all IE browsers, if the user opts to set MSN as their home page, they're also using Live Search there. Therefore, people who use Live Search tend to use IE as a browser.
Furthermore, I've noticed that people who use Firefox are more tech savvy and know how to change default search engines. I bet a similar test would show that a majority of Firefox users use Google. After all, it is the default...
There should be a way to get conclusive data. If you search the Web from the Desktop search bar, the phrase "FORM=IE7RE" gets added to the search query URL.
Just proves that 99.82% of IE users are too stupid and don't know how to change search engines, or use a proper web browser
"Sure enough, they found that an overwhelming 99.82% of all Live Search sessions are Windows machines running IE."
The error is that Live Search is the default search for IE browsers. In IE7 and above, Live Search is the default toolbar search engine, and in all IE browsers, if the user opts to set MSN as their home page, they're also using Live Search there. Therefore, people who use Live Search tend to use IE as a browser.
Furthermore, I've noticed that people who use Firefox are more tech savvy and know how to change default search engines. I bet a similar test would show that a majority of Firefox users use Google. After all, it is the default...
There should be a way to get conclusive data. If you search the Web from the Desktop search bar, the phrase "FORM=IE7RE" gets added to the search query URL.
Just proves that 99.82% of IE users are too stupid and don't know how to change search engines, or use a proper web browser
Did you go and ask each of the 99.82 % to back your statement?? I don't think so. So please keep your fantasy statement to yourself. This is 2008, and people aren't that computer illiterate as they were before. Browers give simple options to change the search engine, and I know a lot of people who just change it to google ( on both IE and Firefox ) just for the sake of Google's popularity.
Give up the damn myth.
Would you swear on that? It's not about being tech-savvy, it's down to personal choice. I use IE7, but with Google because it gives me better results.
The only thing I can take away from that study, is that yes, the majority of users will generally opt for the default search engine, because as far as they are concerned, it gives them the results they want. Firefox ships with Google as it's default search engine, yet you don't see a similar study do you?
So would you say that I am stupid because I use IE7? Or that sometimes it's ok to use Live Search?
And would you say that IE is not a proper web browser (that statement in itself is retarded)?
Just because people don't share YOUR CHOICE in browser, or YOUR CHOICE in search engine, does not make them stupid. It makes you sound stupid for saying it.
That depends on your reason for using it. If you use it for your preference, that's fine. If you use it because you think it's a secure browser, you've a bit to learn. (Translated to how most people would say it, you'd be stupid.)
I don't think it's a proper web browser. It's not standards compliant and it leaves some nice security holes. I'd also mention that it isn't available on Mac OS X or Linux - we non-Windows users really love it when webpages are coded specifically for IE and won't work in anything else. Really.
You're right, it doesn't make them stupid. But hearing you trump up IE as if there's nothing wrong with it or with what its mass usage has done to the web makes me think that perhaps you aren't aware of the problems involved.
-Spenser
The two main observations I have between the two are
Regarding the article though, most OEMs set the default search engine to Google.
I seriously doubt that the majority of Live Search usage is via people typing into the address bar. It seems every time I talk someone through on the phone to go to a web address, they just automatically type into the Google toolbar and then I have to explain what the address bar is and that you can type URLs into it.
The problem for live search right now is not that their results are sub par or their performance is bad. In both cases I believe that it could be argued that either of the 2 sites are superior on these fronts. The problem right now is that they do not return the same exact results as google. people are accustomed to searching for certain keywords on google to "re-find" content by following the same procedure as they originally used to find the content.
live search is a Microsoft service. Searching in live ... you might as well eat, sh*t, f*ck Microsoft style as THEY OWN YOU
I'd rather give google it's share then put all eggs in the same basket
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