As I noted here a few months ago when Microsoft started running pretty generic TV ads for its search service, such a move by an upstart can have the effect of helping the market leader.
Surprise, surprise, as the Wall Street Journal notes today (subscription required):
“Bill Gates has talked a lot about how Microsoft is taking search seriously. But in the wake of quarterly earnings reports last month and lukewarm enthusiasm for the unveiling of MSN Search, it looks like Microsoft could be falling further behind Google and Yahoo, figuring out iron just as its rivals are moving on to steel.”
MSN’s ad revenue was up 4% in the previous quarter from a year earlier, even as Google’s ad revenue almost doubled and Yahoo’s gained 54%, writers Tim Hanrahan and Jason Fry noted.
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