After essentially giving Google a massive head start in the world of search, Microsoft appears poised to increase its advertising to boost the appeal of its search engine.
According to a report this week in Advertising Age, in order to market its new search venture, Microsoft plans to spend $100 million on an ad campaign.
Reports show that the new search engine may be something different than the Live Search the company currently implements. A screenshot which was recently posted on the website All Things Digital has the search engine going under the name Kumo.
But sources tell Advertising Age that the roll-out of Kumo will not position it as a competitor to Google or other search engines currently in use. Instead it will be marketed as a "reimagined" search engine which gives more focused results.
If this is the case, and if Microsoft can gain market share in the industry currently being dominated by Google, search engine marketers may need to refocus some of their campaigns.
According to statistics last month from Hitwise, Google has 72.11 percent of the search engine market share – increasing their lead by 8 percent between February 2008 and February 2009. Microsoft’s search.msn.com – which includes searches on Live.com and MSN Search – ranked third with just 5.56 percent of searches.
