Edunology - Saumya Aggarwal

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RIM has tied up with Microsoft to offer Bing Maps and Search on their upcoming BlackBerry smartphones; a deal that was announced at the BlackBerry World event yesterday. It certainly seems as if Microsoft is looking to tie up with major non-Google-aligned parties in order to take on the current domination of the Android platform, a fact mirrored in the Nokia-Windows Phone partnership, where Nokia’s Ovi Maps and Microsoft’s Bing search were once again a major part of the collaboration.

It’s interesting to see three major players tying up to battle what is, at least by name, an open source platform that innumerable manufacturers are flocking to. That RIM will benefit from the partnership is obvious, with Bing and other Microsoft services evolving in collaboration with Nokia. We’re likely to see a lot of exchange of IP soon, with RIM sharing some of its expertise.

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Facebook Inc expanded its partnership with Microsoft Corp.s Bing  search engine, letting people automatically see what their Facebook friends think about the topics they're seeking information on.

Bing's new search screen also will let users become a person's friend on Facebook or send a message to the social- networking service, Microsoft and Facebook said at a media event in Mountain View, California. Searches for restaurants or movies will spotlight the ones that a user's friends like. Terms of the partnership weren't disclosed.



"This is a new era," Qi Lu, president of online services at Microsoft, said at the event. "Can the search experience be better if all the people you trust are part of that experience? You will find that the experience will be much better."

Microsoft is counting on traffic from Facebook, the world's most popular social network, as it steps up competition with Google Inc. Microsoft is merging its search operations with Yahoo! Inc. this year in a bid to challenge Google's dominance in the market. The new features "offer a lot of promise," said Danny Sullivan, who runs the search-analysis website Search Engine Land.

"This opens the idea that your friends can somewhat mind- meld with your search engine," he said. "But there's still more to be done. The early implementation shows a lot of gaps so far to me."


Better results?

The queries from Facebook users will help Microsoft refine its searches, said Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president at the Redmond, Washington-based company. Bing users can opt out of being integrated with Facebook, he said.

Microsoft aims to get an edge on Google, which is making its own search-engine refinements. Last month, Google unveiled a faster search feature called Instant that gives users results as they type in a query. Advertisers will spend $12.4 billion on search ads this year, up from $10.7 billion in 2009, EMarketer Inc. estimates.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, credited Bing with spurring innovation in search, saying at the event that search user interface hadn't changed for eight years before Bing.

"The thing that makes Microsoft a great partner for us is that they really are the underdog here," he said at the event. "Because of that, they're in a structural position where they're incentivized to just go all out and innovate."

Ad partnership

Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, paid $240 million for a stake in Facebook in 2007. Facebook uses Microsoft for search-linked advertisements, though it stopped running its partner's banner ads this year. Facebook opted to focus on its own efforts in that area.

Google's share of US Internet search rose to 66.1 percent last month from 65.4 in August, according to Reston, Virginia- based ComScore Inc. Microsoft's share edged up to 11.2 percent from 11.1 percent. Yahoo, which has begun using Bing for search, dropped to 16.7 percent from 17.4 percent, ComScore said.

via TOI

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Now that Microsoft and Yahoo have joined hands, Yahoo will be powered by Bing in US and Canada. This is the sign for more positive things coming in near future.
As a proof of correction, Nielsen says its search data only counts "genuine intentional searches" that users type into a search box, and does not include contextual searches that are automatically generated by search engines based on browsing behavior. However, other US search-measuring groups, including comScore, Experian Hitwise, and StatCounter, still show Yahoo in second place and Bing in third.

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Adding to the latest buzz in search engine competition, Google has picked idea from its competitor Bing.

Last month, Google added a new feature to its homepage that enabled users to select a background image. Google included a gallery of professional photos to choose from, including those by famous artists and National Geographic. Soon, Microsoft responded via tweet over the obvious similarities of this feature to the company's search engine: "We've lost a background image, if found please return to bing.com."

A new report by ForeSee Results perhaps explains why Google is starting to "borrow" ideas from its latest competitor. Released yesterday, the Annual E-Business Report on customer satisfaction shows that Google's popularity is waning. While the search engine remains in first place, it fell six points in customer satisfaction--its biggest drop yet. "Google may be suffering from trying to be too many things to too many people," the report concluded. "[The] drop would be less worrisome if Bing hadn't made such a strong debut."


Indeed, Bing made an incredibly strong showing its first time on the chart, debuting in second place ahead of Yahoo and only three points behind Google in customer satisfaction. "Last year, when Google was riding high and Bing was a new player, we said it would be tough for Bing to challenge ... Google's dominance," ForeSee said of its 2009 report. "But with the marketing power of Microsoft behind it and a customer satisfaction score that presents a strong challenge, it looks more and more like Bing has a fighting chance."
 
Source: Fastcompany
 
As I see, the innovation is the key to survive in competitive world and Microsoft will bing is certainly doing that this time. It would be heartening to see Google coming up with more offerings now.