Microsoft has owned the number three search engine for a long time now but that might be changing soon. Whether it was the migration from MSN Search to Live Search, the simpler design displaying a single search box on Live.com, or the implementation of the Live Search Cashback program, Microsoft appears to be rallying as the against all odds underdog of search. While it doesn’t hurt to have the most popular web browser (Internet Explorer) pushing traffic to Live.com, Microsoft’s successful growth in search over the past year cannot be attributed to their huge web browser market share alone. After all, Microsoft has held that leading position for many years now.
Regardless of the reasons for Live.com’s traffic growth, it’s clear that Microsoft has taken a page or two from of Google’s handbook for building a friendlier search engine UI. For example, both Google and Live display a single search box on their respective homepages, the results layout is very much the same for both, and their placement of advertising is nearly identical between the two. A few other similarities include an autocomplete search function and a list of search topics positioned above the search box (i.e. images, video, news, maps). One clear advantage that Live.com has over Google.com is the design of their image search page. Instead of scrolling to the bottom of the search results in order to navigate to the next page of images on Google, all image results on Live are viewed on a single page. You can also zoom in to view any image within Live’s search results page by simply moving the mouse over the image. Using Google’s image search you can filter for image color, image size, and the type of content/style from which the image originates. However, Live’s image search permits you to filter for all those criteria plus image layout (i.e. square, round, rectangle).
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Another instance where Live tends to shine over Google is video search. Google’s video search results page layout is an antiquated eyesore. Google still displays the old videos from video.google.com instead of directing the user to YouTube. I am yet to understand why Google hasn’t consolidated all its videos given that YouTube accounts for more than 99% of all videos viewed on Google owned properties. Microsoft Live’s video search pulls in videos from all the popular video publishing websites like YouTube, Metacafe, and Hulu as well as video content from popular blogs and news sites. Google does this too but not quite as elegantly. That is, Google has its small dated video player in the right hand corner so that when you select a video from the search results it begins to play. In contrast, a simple mouseover of the video in question triggers it to play on Live.com. To access the larger player on Live, you need only to click on the video and a new page at Live.com opens to display it. Hence, instead of being redirected to the video’s native homepage (i.e. YouTube), you can remain at Live to continue your search if desired. One other thing that is important to note is that you can’t view Hulu videos on Google whereas you can on Live.com.
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While Live Search is definitely offering up some great improvements that rival or beat Google in certain areas in terms of the overall user experience, it falls flat in others. Microsoft Live’s news search is poorly configured compared to Google’s in which you can sort by time, date, and relevance as well as query the blogosphere for related content. Maps are another strength of Google’s in which it can quickly identify some businesses that Live cannot. It’s better searching abilities not design, however, that still tip the scales in Google’s favor. Whether Microsoft can rally to become the number one contender for search remains to be seen but data from Compete suggests that Live.com is pummeling Google in terms of yearly traffic growth. Perhaps that’s partly why Google has recently become more focused than ever at improving their search engine and making things like semantic search and real-time search a high priority.
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As I ponder the impressive Live.com traffic gains displayed above, I can’t help but wonder if Microsoft is on course to securing victory in the race to be number one in search. I know that may sound like one hell of a long shot to most people, but if you seriously consider the immense number of indoctrinated Microsoft and Internet Explorer users available to encourage such efforts, an underdog’s chances of a successful come from behind win doesn’t seem quite that far-fetched anymore.
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