Microsoft tries to loosen Google's grip on the internet

August 3, 2009

Google's control of the search engine market helps make Google websites the most visited on the internet. Just as competition between broadband internet providers helps drive down consumer cost, web users may wonder if it's maybe not such a good thing to have one company so dominant on web search.

Meanwhile, Google is starting to encroach on Microsoft's and Apple's territory. Google said it will launch a new web-based operating system, Chrome OS, and its Android OS already has a solid share of the smartphone OS market.

As Google creeps into the OS business, potential conflicts forced CEO Eric Schmidt and Apple CEO Steve Jobs today to announce that Schmidt is resigning from the board of directors of Apple.

Last week, Microsoft announced a partnership with Yahoo that would combine search advertising sales for both companies, which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said will give advertisers and consumers more choice.

"Through this agreement with Yahoo, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," Ballmer said.

While Google's search share slipped down to about 77 percent of broadband internet searchers in July, Bing rose a point to 9.41 percent and Yahoo slipped to about 11 percent, according to StatCounter.

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