[17.06.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Next year, Microsoft will open a new Search Technology Centre (STC) in Europe, a move it said is designed to “disrupt the search and advertising marketplace to the benefit of both the consumer and the advertiser” – in other words ‘we want to blow Google out of the water’.

This announcement comes straight after the Live Search cashback ‘cost per acquisition’ model in the US, where customers buying products through the search portal can redeem cash against those purchases.
The renewed interest in Europe may be due to the fact that while Google is popular with advertisers in the US, it is wildly so with Europeans. Marius Oiaga of Softpedia.com http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Search-Is-as-Well-as-Inexistent-in-Europe-84972.shtml that Microsoft has a mere 1.9pc of the total volume of internet searches in Europe.
Oiaga goes on to cite recent stats by ComScore showing that in March 2008 Microsoft attracted 469 million searches in Europe, whereas Google got 19,434 billion (yes, that’s million versus billion) search queries in the same period.
“Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Centre as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft.
“As I stated in my 18 May memo about our online services strategy, today Microsoft has a 68pc reach to internet users throughout Europe through our online assets and strengths in display advertising. However, we’re not yet where we’d like to be in search in this critical geography,” he added.
Microsoft does fare batter in its native country with 9.4pc of the search engine market in the US, although this is cold comfort in comparison to Google’s 59.8pc share.
By Marie Boran