• BusinessWeek, Wednesday, August 20, 2008 11:15 AM

In the wake of Live Search Cashback and the latest news from Nielson Online that Google's search share grew another 16% in the last twelve months, BusinessWeek's Rob Hof declares that Microsoft's inadequate vision of search simply won't be enough to catch Google -- "not for a long time, anyway."

Not that Microsoft isn't trying. At the Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose, Satya Nardella, Microsoft's senior VP of search, portal, and advertising platform group, said that it's early yet in the search game, and that he sees the sector moving from searchers typing in keywords to actually executing simple tasks. As Hof says, "not coincidentally, getting tasks done is essentially Microsoft's main business, so that sounds a little too convenient." However, Nardella cited an interesting figure, claiming that roughly half of Live Search queries are part of search sessions lasting 30 minutes or more. In other words, users aren't finding what they're looking for right away.

Even so, Microsoft's bribe to pay searchers for using Live Search Cashback and its recent acquisition of search startup Powerset won't be enough to catch Google, Hof says. At this point, not even Google can stop its own momentum. The only thing Microsoft has on its side in the search wars is time, because one day, search will no longer be only about text.

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