Google Vs Micro-Hoo: What Should Google Do?

Google is facing increasing competition from Microsoft and Yahoo, especially after both had just recently struck a deal with a goal to dilute Google’s search share. This partnership would make Bing the primary search engine for all Microsoft and Yahoo sites, while Yahoo focuses on attracting advertisers.

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal is expected to complete by 2012. Having cleared the Australia, Brazil and Canada regulators, the U.S and European regulators are the remaining obstacles before this partnership takes effect. The delay is of course most welcomed in Google’s perspective, giving it ample time to prepare for this epic search battle.

Global Dominance but still…

According to comScore’s statistics, it was revealed that Google is responsible for over 90 percent of the global searches, while Microsoft and Yahoo have a combined share of 7.4 percent. Despite Google’s global dominance, it is essential to take precautionary steps towards this potential threat.

Local Search Share Showing Shaky Signs

In fact, the threat became apparent when we study the local search market shares. Microsoft and Yahoo both handle a combined 28.3 percent of the U.S searches, while Google has 65.4 percent.  Since Bing’s first launched in May 2009, Microsoft’s search share had surged from 8.2 percent to 11.3 percent, a 37.7% improvement within 9 months.

Besides the huge advertising budget Microsoft has, its new features, typically Bing Maps has gained much appraisal from users. Microsoft was also reported to be in talks with Apple to replace Google as the default iPhone search engine. The iPhone is rumored to have at least 40 million users by the end of 2010, making it an attractive platform for gaining search share.

This Microsoft-Apple partnership could materialize given that Google and Apple’s relationship had soured over business product conflicts such as its new Chrome browser, NexusOne phone and its upcoming Chrome Operating System (OS).

The American market plays a big part in Google’s business model. If Microsoft and Yahoo’s partnership were to take place, Google’s local search share and revenue could be badly affected.

Time for Google to Redefine the Search Experience?

Google is known to be an innovative company. Back in the early search days, Google was second to Yahoo and only through continual innovation and relentless pursue in providing the best user experience did Google become successful today. Its advanced algorithmic search has been the spearhead for its search share dominance. While algorithmic search method still plays a big role in the Internet, Google should continue to innovate and redefine how the Internet users search for information.

The aim here is not to improve on the already great algorithm method but to create a whole new dimension that widens Google’s gap ahead of its competitors. What will it be and can social results be the answer to that?

Let us know your thoughts below.