Google And Microsoft Altering Search Results For Music
Microsoft and Google are using their search engine services to better connect fans to entertainment content.
Microsoft launched a new entertainment vertical to its Bing search engine in June, which displays details on up coming tours, streams full-tracks of artists and contains buy links within the results.
Google put together a similar package last year and is now building a music download service that will be tied to its engine and Android mobile operating system.
According to Microsoft, 10 percent of all Internet search queries are entertainment-related, with music lyrics accounting for 70 percent of those searches.
Microsoft is trying to position itself above Google as a better entertainment discovery tool. Bing has more complete features when searching music, such as lyrics, tour dates and buy links.
Â
However, Billboard.com reported that its sources said Google will launch a music download service that is tied to its search engine. Music searches on Google currently link to a full-song being streamed from MySpace Music.
Google announced during a developers conference for the company’s Android mobile platform in May the acquisition of Simplify Media, which is a content-synching technology that Google demonstrated can be used to automatically synch and stream music purchased online to any Android phone.
Google is facing opposition from groups like BPI, a trade group representing U.K. record labels. BPI issued a takedown notice to Google in June, demanding it remove links to 17 songs from third-party websites it deemed as infringing.Â
If Google complies with the group’s demands then it would set a precedent that will almost certainly result in a flood of additional takedown notices from every music label and publisher eager to eliminate pirate links on the world’s most popular search engine.
Microsoft senior VP of online services Yusuf Mehdi said that Bing will comply with the music industry’s takedown request, but has no plans to alter the search algorithm that determines search results.
"We’re pretty true to the algorithmic ranking in the Web results," Mehdi says. "We’re obviously not going to surface that kind of stuff in the Bing box, but the algorithm that determines relevancy of search results we’ll stick with."
According to the most recent data from information services firm Experian Hitwise, Google’s search engine still dominated the search market in May with 72 percent U.S. market share, while Yahoo still stands at second with 14.4 percent and Bing at third with 9.2 percent.
However, when it comes to music, all of them fall behind compared to Apple, which commands 70 percent of digital music download sales in the U.S., according to NPD Group. Although Apple has not jumped into the online search market, both Microsoft and Google are competing with Apple on the rapidly growing smartphone market.
—
On the Net: