Google’s share of US searches dropped below 50 percent in June with Microsoft the big gainer, according to the latest data from comScore, but analysts question whether many of the Microsoft Live searches are genuine.

Google’s share fell from 50.7 percent in May to 49.5 percent in June. Number two search site, Yahoo! also dropped from 26.4 percent to 25.1 Microsoft sites however surged from 10.3 to 13.2 percent. “Microsoft Sites experienced a significant increase in search query volume (up 36 percent) and search market share (up 2.9 share points in June, due in large part to Live Search Club, a program launched by Microsoft in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search,” comScore said.

Live Search Club http://club.live.com/, launched in April gives registered members the ability to earn ‘tickets’ by playing a variety of online games, all of which require some use of Live Search. Tickets can be redeemed for prizes ranging from ring tones and song downloads to Xbox packages and Zunes.

However, according to industry analysts, many users are employing bots to automate searches for them. There is certainly plenty of evidence for this in online forums. One user wrote ‘ That bot rocks, I’ve had it on for one and a half hours and it’s at 7237 searches. If Microsoft got $0.10 each search [from search related advertising] that is $723.70.”

Source by itwire.com.au

Random Posts

• international kite festival is held at nr by Ahmedabad
• Ask Expands Network Capability With New Data Center
• Why Search Engines Fail