Microsoft (MSFT) Challenges Google (GOOG) in Search

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has dominated Internet search over the last 14 years, so much so that Google has become a verb, like Xerox. You know. “Can you Xerox this form for me?” “I need to Google ‘underwater basketweaving’ to find a school that offers the class.” Well, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is challenging Google’s search dominance by offering a new campaign to ask search users to compare Google Search results with those of Bing by Microsoft, of which Microsoft makes the claim that its search is better than the part-of-speech.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has launched a “Bing it On” campaign – complete with its own Web site – in which a user enters a search keyword or phrase in the box and both Bing and Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Search show their results in a side-by-side comparison of the results and give feedback of which search is better for the user.

In a blog post, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stated that its “mission is to show people it’s time to break the ‘Google habit’ and that Bing has reached a quality level that will make it easy to switch.” The Bing It On Web site claims that  Bing has been a 2-to-1 choice of test users over the Google Search, and now Microsoft wants to put its search to the test against the “king.”

But Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has kept a healthy skepticism about Bing, even claiming that a sting revealed that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) had copied Google’s search algorithm, though Microsoft has denied the charge. Microsoft sites made up 16 percent of the search market in recent comScore data, while Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) had about 67 percent of the U.S. market.

Investors may be interested to see if this campaign results in any dent in the Google market stranglehold and makes Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) more visible in Internet searches – and perhaps make Bing a new verb of choice.