Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Microsoft Expected to Debut Updated Search Engine at D: All Things Digital
The long-awaited upgrade to Microsoft’s search engine will soon make its debut. Sources with knowledge of the situation said the company is expected to demonstrate it at our D: All Things Digital conference next week.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to appear onstage at the event, a three-day event that hosts top players from the tech and media industries in interviews by All Things Digital Co-executive Editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
Code-named “Kumo,” the search engine is Microsoft’s effort to raise its hand to table stakes in the battle for search market share with Google.
Just as the mobile Web and the wired Web are converging, so too are their audiences, which are destined to reach parity in size–and sooner, rather than later. According to the latest metrics from comScore, day-to-day mobile Internet usage in the states doubled over the last year.
As steady and reliable as a McDonalds hamburger, comScore’s monthly search metrics–and about as exciting. February’s search rankings were much like January’s, which were much like December’s, which were.… Well, you see where this is headed. Succinctly speaking, Google’s share of Internet searches in the U.S.: large. Everyone else’s: small.
If it’s true that misery loves company, it may be of some comfort to know that searches for econalypse-related terms have spiked over the past year. According to new U.S. data from comScore, search engine queries for “bankruptcy” rose 156 percent from December 2007 to 2.5 million. Meanwhile, searches for “unemployment” and “unemployment benefits” saw even sharper increases in interest.
It’s a watershed moment for the Internet. Digital research outfit comScore reports that total global Internet audience topped one billion for the first time in December. And many of its members prefer Google over all other Web properties.
No surprises here: December’s search rankings were much like the search rankings of the 11 months prior. Google’s share of the market: large. Everyone else’s: substantially less so. 
With the econalypse still playing havoc with global finances, holiday shoppers are behaving pretty much as you’d imagine. They’re spending less–presumably, saving up for that awful rainy day when discretionary income is better spent holding onto their homes than on another Wii game under the Christmas tree. 
With online spending growth at its lowest rate in seven years, this holiday season is likely to be the worst for e-commerce since the concept was first dreamt up. Which means that Cyber Monday, the symbolic start of the online holiday shopping season, may prove to be quite a bit less than the orgy of consumer spending for which retailers have been hoping.
Call it the Great E-pression. Online spending growth in October fell to its lowest rate in seven years, and given the tenor of economic news these days, it’s almost certainly headed lower still. According to research outfit comScore, online spending grew by just one percent over October 2007.
