Chicago, June 19: As Microsoft`s new search engine
Bing competes for market share with well-established rivals
Google and Yahoo, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Friday said the
company should have entered the online search engine market
earlier at the same time is willing to make investments in its
search business over the next five years.
"If we could have one do-over, I would probably say I
would start sooner on search... but we have got our mojo
working now," Ballmer said at the Executives` Club of Chicago
luncheon here, adding, "Our mistake wasn`t that we didn`t see
the technology change coming, we didn`t see the business
change coming."
Ballmer said he would be patient and give the Bing search
engine, launched in June, time to gain share in the market and
gain consumers.
He said Microsoft is willing to invest in its search
business over the next few years just as it did for its gaming
console Xbox, which now generates "nice economic returns for
us".
Bing was launched earlier this month, replacing
Microsoft`s previous Live Search engine. Microsoft`s faces
tough competition from rivals Google and Yahoo in the search
engine business.
According to data by industry tracker comScore, Google
got 65 per cent of US searches in May, followed by Yahoo with
20.1 per cent and Microsoft with 8 per cent.
Bureau Report
