Third Post

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210604791

I read an article about Microsoft trying to catch Google in the search engine department. They had attempted to buy Yahoo early this year, but that backfired on them, as Google ended up getting that deal, turning their percentage of the market to 82.5%. Microsoft, on the other hand owns only a measly .9% of the search engine market. However, Microsoft did buyout Fast Search & Transfer for 1.3 billion dollars, and made a deal with Powerset that was worth 100 million dollars. Microsoft thinks they have a very good chance at catching if not passing Google. They say that’s because nobody (even Google) has perfected their search engines yet. For example when you search something on Google, what you’re looking for doesn’t always come up on the first, second or third page, and sometimes even at all. That is what Microsoft is counting on, that they will be able to create a better search engine than Google, and that people will start using that as their home page. As an attempt at this they are trying out Powerset’s method of interpreting the phrases using linguistics. Personally, I don’t think it will make that much of a difference if Microsoft gets a more accurate search engine. Google has become the popular thing and the name for searching something (i.e. “Google it”). Also, I think Microsoft should be content with the things they have and improve those not try to steal Google’s users. For example, they have the Mac, iTunes, and the iPhone, which is being copied by many other companies; they should improve on those and work on a search engine next.