Vista Makes Run at Google

According to research firm HitWise, 63% of Web searches were run on Google during January, compared with 21% for Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and only about 10% for Microsoft's MSN division.

Many other search experts arrive at an even higher number for Google by using a different method, which checks where specific Web traffic came from. Ramos estimates that about 89% of search traffic to Web sites is routed through Google.

But with such big numbers, it's more difficult for Google to chalk up each additional point of market share. Microsoft, meanwhile, faces an easier climb.

Moreover, Microsoft's ability to tie Web searching to the desktop operating systems and applications it has a stranglehold on can have a powerful effect. In order to gain market share, Microsoft doesn't have to deliver search results that are appreciably better than Google's. It simply has to make sure its results aren't markedly worse to win over new converts because of the convenience.

Such a strategy has served Microsoft well in the past. During the 1990s, the company was able to suffocate the threat from Netscape's Navigator browser by bundling its own Internet Explorer product with its Windows operating system. Many saw Netscape as technically superior, but it didn't matter.

Microsoft's Explorer continues to dominate even now, though new browsers with superior capability and more reliability such as Firefox are available for free, thanks to the open-source software movement. Microsoft's Internet Explorer had 86% market share as of January, compared with about 12 % for Firefox, according to the research firm OneStat.