Roulston Technology Partner Rob Enderle on Search Rivalry between Google and Microsoft

The competition between Google and Microsoft in the search industry was very intense in 2011 even though there was no game changer introduced by either company. The growing competition between the two companies is great news for users because it will result in more innovation and new search features. After starting off slow Microsoft’s Bing started picking up traction after they formed a partnership deal with Yahoo in 2009 and over the following two years Bing’s market share has nearly doubled. In fact, in 2011 Google’s market share fell below 65% for the first time in two years. Rob believes Microsoft’s investment in Bing is starting to pay off stating, “They increasingly appeared as the nicer, more interesting alternative to Google search.” Microsoft’s major win this year came from it’s partnerships with market leading social partners Facebook and Twitter while Google has only formed a relationship with it’s own social network Google+. This may be a major opportunity for Bing because Google+ does not have near the subscribers as its market leading counterparts. Both companies are hoping to come up with a market changer in 2012, which potentially will come from the mobile market as search will attempt to work its way into every smartphone app in some manner. To read the full article please visit http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=C6464F28-96D7-9198-881DAA42DD4E404A.

Rob Enderle is President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, a forward looking emerging technology advisory firm. He specializes in providing rapid perspectives and suggested tactics and strategies to a large number of clients dealing with rapidly changing global events.