Microsoft Partners with Sun for Web Search

Posted by Vaibhav

November 11, 2008

Enough is enough! That’s what Microsoft’s latest move seems to suggest in reply to Google’s dominance over the search industry since several years. The software giant has struck a Web search deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. in an attempt to thump Google in the online search competition.

As part of the deal, users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser will be offered the choice to download the MSN toolbar from where they would be allowed to access the firm’s search engine directly. This is, however, only if they download Sun’s Java technology platform as well.

It was not far back when Microsoft Inc. had also inked an agreement with the world’s largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard Co. earlier this year to place a toolbar on new PCs in Canada and the US beginning in January.

Talking about the Microsoft-Sun deal, Yusuf Mehdi, senior VP of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft, said that it will expose Live Search to additional several millions of Web users and steer in larger volume for the company’s search advertisers.

Though closing the gap on search leader Google is a difficult task, it seems that one part of Microsoft’s strategy is to strike distribution deals with well-known companies to meet this objective. Microsoft stated that competition for these kinds of agreements is intense and that the firm had to outbid numerous contenders to strike a deal with Sun.

General Manager of Microsoft Live Search, Brad Goldberg said that the move is the beginning of the execution of a new strategy for the company and described building out distribution as one of the vital things that Microsoft is focused on.

On the other hand, Sun said that the Java platform is currently available on over 800 million PCs worldwide, or on 91% of Web-connected PCs around the world. It also said that the Java Runtime Environment is downloaded tens of millions times each month.

It is evident from the deal that Microsoft is pushing hard to capture a larger market share and come close to Google in the search market. Though it falls in the top three search engines, it is still very far away from the search giant who managed to get hold of 63% of the US Web search pie in August this year, with Yahoo resting second at 19.6% and Microsoft with mere 8.3%, according to statistics released by research firm ComScore Inc.

Even though Microsoft failed to acquire Yahoo initially in the year, analysts believe that it will still attempt to try the buyout and become a tough competitor to Google. Now will it or will it not, only time will tell!

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