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05.21.09 Kumo: Will This Spider Spin The Web?  By
Staff Writer With Google owning nearly 65 percent of the U.S. search engine market, it's no wonder Microsoft is looking for some fresh search engine technology. Right now Microsoft only owns 8 percent of the market share in the U.S. search engines, according to the April U.S. Search Engine Rankings. This ranking is due in-part to their Internet Explorer-embedded Live Search default. In recent months, Microsoft employees have been testing Kumo, and now the new engine is scheduled to roll out next week. Perhaps that explains the rising stocks for the Microsoft Corp (MSFT) today. Kumo, which is Japanese for "spider" (and "cloud"), is an aptly-chosen appellation for the new search platform, which forecasts its hope to become the web's leading search engine. So what does Kumo have to offer? Insiders who have seen the prototype report that Kumo's main feature is its limitation of search results. Obviously, no one is going to click through each one of the millions of search results returned from most Google Searches. As WolframAlpha, Yahoo, and Google's new search feature are attempting to, Kumo will return a limited, but focused number of search results. Refined accuracy is their goal.
But when "Google" has become a verb in today's vocabulary, it's highly unlikely that Kumo will even have a chance of rising to double digits in the share it takes in the search engine market. Google is the unquestionable king over the realm of search engines. Kumo isn't the only search engine joining the fray. Yahoo has thrown down the gauntlet in the search for a better search engine. They aren't doing too badly. In fact, Yahoo's share of searches were over 20 percent for April, with the Ask Network and AOL as the only other significant competitors, both under 4 percent. Microsoft could surprise us all. We'll just have to let consumers decide for themselves when Kumo is released next week. About the Author: Staff writer for the iEntry network. |
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