Why Live Search Will Never Compete with Google

When a sizable company decides to enter into direct competition with the current leader in the industry, you would think that they would actually try to offer the same product, right?  Not when you’re Microsoft.  I’ve signed up and tested the Live Cash service from Microsoft and come to the conclusion that Microsoft missed the point completely and didn’t create a competitor to Google, they instead turned their “search engine” into a competitor with companies like Ebates.com and Shopping.com.

Of course having a key differentiating point is vital for success in any industry, however Microsoft is not positioning themselves to take users away from Google or even Yahoo! Since the launch of the “pay to search engine” I still have no reason to go to Live.com when I’m looking for any web related item.  As much as we love to hate Google, they are still head and shoulders above everyone else in the industry when it comes to finding what I’m looking for online.  And as far as I can see there are only two ways that either Yahoo! or Microsoft will be able to gain market share in the search engine wars.

1. Wiki search
There is only one thing users love more than ease of use and speed, and that is control.  If Yahoo! or Microsoft could effectively enable users to control search criteria, they would finally have a service that would have enough of a differentiating factor to gain market share.  Early adopters would being the migration toward this type of platform just as they did with Wikipedia, Twitter, et al.  The process would not be quick, however in my opinion there would come a time where either of these two companies would be able to be a true #2 in the search market.  This is, of course, assuming that Google would not be able to develop and come to market with this same type of product offering.

2. Semantic Search
This second option would be easier to execute upon, however it may now create enough differentiation to be considered a an enhanced alternate solution.  For those of you not familiar with the Semantic Web, here is a quote from Wikipedia:

The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.^[1][2] It derives from W3CTim Berners-Lee’s vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange.^[3]

^{The continued stranglehold Google has on the search market is going to force whoever decides to compete to offer a very dynamic service.  If you want a prime example of the difference between the search engines, type in: Jordan Hudgens into Google, Yahoo! and Live.com.  The accuracy of the results are so drastic it is amazing that Yahoo! and Microsoft even consider themselves in the search industry.}