The online game is all about rapid change and 2009 was no different, here is a round-up of some of the good stuff from last year and how it affected (or will affect) the search market.

Missing something? Well, that would be Live Search from Microsoft, in it’s place we now have the (rather oddly titled) Bing. Strangely enough, the Live.com domain still ranks at No. 5 worldwide (at the time of writing) according to Alexa whilst Bing sits at No. 21, quite a way down. Microsoft is pushing Bing in a big way though, and whilst MSN and/or Windows Live never quite managed to catch up to Yahoo!, Bing has managed to pretty much bridge that gap (worldwide) in a short space of time and it’s gains in the US market vs Yahoo! continue. Shortly after the initial launch there were already a slew of updates to Microsoft’s ‘decision engine‘. Striking a deal with Wolfram|Alpha, launching a free Bing App for the iPhone and completing a very expensive deal with Verizon Wireless, much to the dismay of some Verizon customers, are all moves to promote Bing in Microsoft’s continuing struggle to raise it’s presence in search. Bing users are apparently more advertising click happy though, so even though there are less users, they are more likely to click on ads.

Yahoo! is still ranked No. 3 worldwide and though many people may talk them down, they are still a favourite for many internet users.  Their stock price is (currently) looking good and they are doing their best to fight off the aggressive push by Microsoft. On a site interaction level, the Yahoo! approach remains very different to that of Google or Bing, with a much more social ‘home page’ than Google’s minimalism or Bing’s really good-looking daily photos. They are now offering localized business results, integrated tweets into search results and have struck a deal with Facebook Connect, all moves which contribute to it’s targeting a different demographic of the search market.

Google dominated search in 2009 once again, branching out further and further into internet users daily lives. During the year Google’s products continued to infiltrate our online activities, not just in search but clever moves like Android (plus Nexus One), the much anticipated Chrome OS (and soon to come netbook), Google Voice and not forgetting the innovative Google Wave, mean things can only improve for the superpower in search. We are still waiting on Google Caffeine, an upgrade to Google Search, and rather peculiarly only got a fade-in effect on the homepage instead. The Top 10 Official Google Blog posts of 2009 are worth reading and don’t forget about the Google AdWords Blog for a refresher of what happened in search advertising in 2009. Whether Google can still be termed a ‘search engine‘ or rather now as a ‘lifestyle‘ is a debatable topic and 2010 will only continue to further this contention. Add to this the fact that even though many big firms may lose value in 2010, Google are still expected to turn a tidy profit, and we clearly have a winner amongst the big three.

What’s looking hot for 2010? Realtime search is something everyone is trying to incorporate into search results. Couple this with the equally hot trend in geo-location and you start to think of interesting opportunities for marketing and search results. An Apple iSlate vs Chrome OS Netbook war is on the cards as is one between the Nexus One (with Google Android) and iPhone, with Google trying to take a bigger slice of Apple’s pie.

Finally, the official search engine 2009 trends are here:

• Google Year-End Zeitgest
• Yahoo! Year in Review 2009
• Top Bing Searches in 2009

And, just for fun, check out the 2010 New Year’s Search Engine Logos here…happy new year!

It has been a very, very busy time for the folks over at Google lately. The much hyped Google Wave is open to a few lucky individuals who got invitations (read more about it at Wikipedia here) and is set to revolutionize the way we communicate online. Not only that, the Google Wave interface is reported to possibly be rolled out to all Google Apps, read more at Engadget here.

That’s just about it right? Well, no… Google appears to be in the process of stockpiling at the moment. Along with Wave, the next-generation of Google search, aka Caffeine, may be just over the horizon. Designed to integrate more tightly with social networking, and apparently twice as fast and more accurate, Caffeine is set to change the way we search. There is a detailed test of Caffeine at Mashable here. Google also just purchased AdMob, a mobile display advertising company, for $750 million. AdMob is one of the largest mobile advertising platforms in the world, claiming to serve more than 7 billion ads a month! You can read more about it at the official press release here.

Finished? Definitely not! They have also just acquired Gizmo5, which will most likely add the ability to make calls to Google Voice. They even decided to release a new programming language, simply called Go. There was also the announcement of a project called SPDY (SPeeDY), which is set to improve upon the current HTTP standard. Read more about SPDY at the Chromium Blog here. Page load time is set to become a more important part of the search results page (read more at Search Engine Land here), Chrome for Mac is set for a December Beta release and finally Google dropped the prices for their extra paid storage, giving you twice the storage for a quarter of the price!

What are all the pieces of the puzzle adding up to? In my mind, only one thing, the coming release of Google Chrome OS. There is one place in the market where Google is forever losing and though there have been many battles, Microsoft continues to bundle Internet Explorer as the primary (and only) browser with Windows. On my installation of Windows 7, if I open Internet Explorer where does my homepage land? Not on Google, I am rather directed to the MSN portal page with a Bing search box.

Google, earns it revenue through advertising, whilst Microsoft sells software. Every person who doesn’t use Google, is one less prospective customer and one less possible click for Google. The chances of Microsoft (unless legally forced to do so) bundling a competitor’s browser (namely Google Chrome) with Windows is just about zero. The only way for Google to gain ground is to do exactly what it is doing now, undermine the very basis of Microsoft’s domination - Windows. Chrome OS will be open source, hence as open source it will also be free. The lure of this is (especially) in the budget PC and netbook market where the additional price of Windows software adds a sizable chunk onto the price. With Google offering Chrome OS free, and if it is good, they already have one foot very firmly in the door. The integration of Chrome OS with the Google suite of applications and services will mean one thing, more places to display advertisements!

Is this the beginning of a battle of the titans? Will we in a few years time see Google having a large piece of the operating system market, which at the moment is almost completely dominated by Microsoft? Only time will tell, but I get the feeling something is afoot…

Microsoft recently re-branded their search platform as Bing, originally codenamed ‘Kumo’. What was Live Search is now Bing and there is a lot to be said for the effort Microsoft has put into its ‘new’ search platform.

What do you get with Bing? All the usual search platform related stuff including Bing Travel, Maps, Shopping, Images, News and so on. What’s different? Well, you get the idea Microsoft might be moving into the Google Trends direction with Bing xRank. Though in its infancy, it has some of the key elements employed in Trends, though currently aimed more at famous people. One would think this might be a sign of things to come, with Microsoft wanting a bigger slice of the search engine market. Overall Bing is very ‘pretty’, responsive and pleasing to use. You also get a new Bing wallpaper everyday, based on localized settings.

Other ‘new’ features include a search box service for your site, which allows you to use Bing on your website. Get one from Bing here. There is also Bing for mobile including three official Bing ringtones for your mobile device.

It remains to be seen whether or not the time, energy and financial expenditure of Microsoft’s major re-branding and promotion will have even a small effect on the giant  that is Google. Though perhaps the incorporation of Bing as the default search engine in Internet Explorer 8, which will be shipped very soon with the much anticipated Windows 7, will help a gain in market share.

 The uptake of Windows 7 is expected to be quick and most likely in large volumes, with minimum hardware support including the emerging Netbook market (something Vista was not capable of) - accompanied by Internet Explorer 8 and hence Bing.

Coincidental timing…I think not!

Want to find out more about Bing? Read all about it at Wikipedia here or take the Discover Bing Tour here.