Source: pandia.com

Google remains the giant, Windows Live is in free fall, Ask is growing.

The November ratings from Nielsen/NetRatings show confirm what several other surveys have indicated. Google remains the supreme giant in US search, with some 50 percent of searches. AOL Search, which is powered by Google, adds another 6.2 percentage points to Google’s total.

Yahoo! continues to be a strong No. 2 with some 24 percent. (Yahoo.com continues to be the most popular web destination, however).

Windows Live in deep trouble

What’s more interesting is the beating taken by Microsoft. Windows Live Search falls with 12 percent compared to last year (when the search engine was known as MSN Search).

Some would argue that this is caused by Microsoft’s inability to deliver a search technology of the same quality as Google’s. However, it might also be that the rebranding of MSN Search as Windows Live Search was a serious mistake.

The Windows Live concept is Microsoft way of facing Google’s attempt to take over the Web with online mail services, word processors and what not. Hence the Windows OS is to function as a bridge to Microsoft’s online services and the other way round.

The problem is that most users probably find it hard to grasp what an online search engine has in common with an operating system. In addition, of course, it is always risky to change a brand like this.

Ask is growing at a brisk pace

At the other hand of the scale, Ask.com has grown with some impressive 33 percent. With only 2.6 percent of the US market, the search site still lags far behind Google and Yahoo! Still, the Teoma technology underlying the Ask.com search engine is sound and innovative, and if more of its competitors makes the same mistake as Microsoft, it might have a chance of becoming one of the major search portals.

It should be noted that Ask also have been through a change of name. However, Ask made sure that the new name and site was recognizable as the continuation of the old one (Ask Jeeves), and did not loose user loyalty as a result of the change.

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