Although Google is the only existing search engine as far as I am concerned yet other search engines like Yahoo! search, Bing and Ask.com do hold ‘little’ market share in this one sided market which has been captured by Google. The year 2009 is about to pass by and it is time when bloggers around the world start jotting down the jist of whatever was ‘hot’ for the past 1 year. I am no different! To start with, here goes the summary of the popular search keywords which made to the top list of various search engines.

Ask.com’s ‘Top Questions for 2009

On a different note, Ask.com has released the top questions that were searched in their search engine during the year 2009. Some of these are similar to the usual popular search keywords that are regularly searched by Internet users while some are quite crazy too! Though ‘Michael Jackson’ seems to be the most popular search keyword for most of the search engines, here in case of Ask.com the legend could not be a part of toppers list. Just to console the soul of the ultra famous Jackson Ask.com has listed the question “Who is the father of Michael Jackson’s children?” as part of the top 10 list.

Other usual questions that made to toppers list were “How much should I weigh?”, “How do I get pregnant?” and “How do I get out of debt fast?”. Other then these some of the weird search questions were “What is Miley Cyrus’s phone number?” and “What is twitter?”. Quite tricky questions, eh?

Ask has also compiled list of top 10 questions for various categories like beauty, traveling, personal finance and pets etc. I couldn’t resist listing some of the questions that have made to the top of various sections. Have a look at them, enjoy reading them, and use them in your blog so as to hit the top of the ask’s search result pages.

• How much should you tip a hairdresser?
• Why do cats purr?
• Can dogs take asprin?
• Which came first the chicken or the egg?
• What is the best way to pack a suitcase?

Bing’s popular search keywords for the year 2009

The popular search keywords within Bing were the usual ones with Michael Jackson topping the list. Twitter, Swine Flu, and Stock Market were the others in the toppers list. ‘Cash for clunkers’ was another popular search keyword that stood at number 7 place this year.

Top Yahoo Keywords For 2009

The top three spots were bagged by Michael Jackson, Twilight, and World Wrestling Entertainment respectively. Rest two spots in yahoo keyword were bagged by Megan Fox and Britney Spears. These two have been part of this list since the year 2001 when Yahoo originally started to release such data. The ghost of recession kept looming on the brains of different Internet surfers and henceforth Yahoo! compiled the list of top economy related yahoo keywords. The yahoo keyword that topped the list was ‘coupons’. Obama was the top searched politician for 2009 and hence an top 10 Obama-related yahoo keywords was also compiled. The very famous inaugration was at the top followed by biography, speeches, and stimulus plan.

The year started with people madly searching for “What is Twitter?” but later on the topic changed to discussions related with Twitter. Seems like search results helped the planet quick enough so that they can move to better queries!

Google Zeitgeist!

Well, it’s Google and it has to be different. So the name Zeitgeist! As even a kid will guess, Michael Jackson topped the popular search keywords list for 2009 while facebook bagged the second spot. Surprisingly, Spanish social networking website Tuenti bagged third spotwhile Turkish based social networking website Sanalika bagged the fifth spot. Twitter settled down with fourth spot. Barack Obama was at number four position in the fastest falling search keywords just because his presence in News Channels made it easy for people to keep track of his activities. Real Madrid bagged the number 1 spot for those fastest rising in sports while acai berry bagged number one spot in food and drinks list.

Well, the word Microsoft and Free do not go hand-in-hand and hence I was quiet surprised when I saw that Microsoft offering free hosting service without ads or banners for new users. Making the offer extra juicy, Microsoft has included a free domain, 500MB of free storage space, 100 free e-mail addresses, and a couple of site editing tools for those who hate to code their sites from scratch. And all this for FREE?!?! 

Their had to be some catch in this free hosting service and I was quick to grab that. They give you the above mentioned stuff for free during the first year. After that you need to pay them $14.95 per year for the free hosting service and of course the domain charges after the first year. But hey that isn’t any huge amount for such a cool hosting service? Finally, I will admit that Microsoft has come up with something which is a must grab for newbies and will truly prove to be profitable for Microsoft in the long run.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business

People are still in facing the dilemma of either to use or not to use Windows Vista and is Microsoft busy preparing another version of Windows code named Windows 7. Although Microsoft had announced that their will be a gap of around 3 years between the next Windows version and Windows Vista but experts doubt that Windows 7 might be launched somewhere in June 2009. This will be way too quick than what we have expected and it will surely be unfortunate for those who haven’t yet started using Windows Vista. They will have to decide between Windows 7 and Windows Vista, something which they just won’t want to do.

Around 36 leaked images of Windows 7 have been posted on Think Next website and here are their previews. Click on these images to see the larger versions. And switch to Think Next for the complete package of the screenshots.

It might be the tagged images in your hard drive or the lost word document or might be the ‘A Graded’ clip which is lost in between the pile of folders, Windows desktop search is always ready to help you find the stuff you need. Taking a step ahead in desktop search Microsoft has launched the preview of Windows Search, the version 4.0. The various advantages of this version as stated in Microsoft website are:

• Support for the Encrypting File System (EFS)
• Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
• Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
• Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations
• Improved indexing performance
• Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
• Per-user Group Policy settings
• Windows software updates for Watson errors

These and many more facilities in the upcoming version are set to ease your life.

This is getting serious now. Around two months back Microsoft made a proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008. Yahoo! didn’t respond and everything just ended up being part of articles over various blogs big and small (I didn’t write about it.) Since then Yahoo! has been trying to work out with many other new ventures may be with a thought to get some jump in the Microsoft bid but they never said anything officially about the acquisition.

Now it looks like Microsoft has waited a lot for Yahoo! to respond and finally they have given Yahoo a three week time period after which they say they will directly approach their shareholders instead of the Yahoo Board of Directors.

This is what the letter has to say:

Dear Members of the Board:

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

While there has been some limited interaction between management of our two companies, there has been no meaningful negotiation to conclude an agreement. We understand that you have been meeting to consider and assess your alternatives, including alternative transactions with others in the industry, but we’ve seen no indication that you have authorized Yahoo! management to negotiate with Microsoft. This is despite the fact that our proposal is the only alternative put forward that offers your shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.

During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined. Finally, you have adopted new plans at the company that have made any change of control more costly.

By any fair measure, the large premium we offered in January is even more significant today. We believe that the majority of your shareholders share this assessment, even after reviewing your public disclosures relating to your future prospects.

Given these developments, we believe now is the time for our respective companies to authorize teams to sit down and negotiate a definitive agreement on a combination of our companies that will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders, creating a more efficient and competitive company that will provide greater value and service to our customers. If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.

It is unfortunate that by choosing not to enter into substantive negotiations with us, you have failed to give due consideration to a transaction that has tremendous benefits for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees. We think it is critically important not to let this window of opportunity pass.

Sincerely,
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Office
Microsoft Corp.

What say? Are you ready to see the face to face WWE between Microsoft and Yahoo!?

This time I will keep you updated with the happenings..