In today’s keynote address at the CES 2009 convention in Las Vegas, NV, Steve Ballmer announced a variety of things, including the new Microsoft – Verizon partnership for mobile search and other mobile networking features. This was met with mixed reaction from Verizon users online.

The crux of the deal was an integration of Microsoft’s Live Search and its inherent advertising revenue, reportedly as much as $550 million a year. This ad revenue would go into Verizon’s corporate pockets and come at the expense of their cell phone customers’ time, and possibly search quality. If you have used the regular Live Search, you know that it is passable, but not great as far as real, dynamic information. Google definitely remains the search engine of choice for the most comprehensive results.

I was decidedly disappointed about the Live Search aspect of the partnership, personally. I’m into getting the results I need, not looking at ads when I’m on the go, especially at the rates companies like Verizon charge for data plans. That said, many of my colleagues are completely fine with it, and several pointed out that nothing was said during the announcement to indicate that you couldn’t simply type in Google or Yahoo as your search engine if you wanted – it will just be an extra step in the process.

One thing that is nice about Live Search is the location based aspect, but again – Microsoft has a long way to go to usurp search king Google. Users of Verizon phones aren’t just getting the Live Search feature, they are getting other Live services as well. The most important of these is access to the MSN Live portal, which gives users access to a variety of social media and social networking sites in one place. This easily trumps Verizon’s own attempt at aggregating social profiles earlier in the year. Microsoft even announced that FaceBook would take a spot in the list of social media sites included within a few weeks.

Microsoft gets points for trying to increase its search engine market share by distributing its Live Search with a heavy hitting carrier like Verizon, which is slated to hit the number one spot for mobile carriers after it completes its acquisition of Altel. Even so, my take is that it won’t be able to break the habits ingrained by Google. Google has become the household word synonymous with searching the Internet, on cell phones or at your computer. Add in the fact that Verizon charges a whopping $1.40 for directory assistance calls to 411 and you can call 1-800-GOO-G411 for free thanks to Google and Microsoft has an uphill battle ahead.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 11:37 pm under Cell phones, Microsoft.

Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
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