A Chink in the Armor?

Google's dominance in search has been trumpeted by analysts and shareholders as often as it is lamented by their competitors.  A recent survey by Forrester Research, however, found that only 20% of Internet searchers use Google exclusively.  In addition, Microsoft's Live.com and Yahoo were rated higher for searches involving news, finance or media content and Yahoo was more likely to be a user's home page than Google.

In response to similar findings in their internal research, Google's competitors are focusing on areas other than core search in an attempt to strengthen their market shares.  Some of the products that are currently rolling out illustrate this new focus:

Yahoo - has a product called Search Pad, currently in beta, that will allow users to keep track of the sites they visit during an ongoing search.  This eliminates the need to keep separate notes and has the advantage of being fully integrated into Yahoo's search platform.

Ask - is refocusing their strategy on vertical search in an attempt to give users higher quality search results in specific topics.  As part of this strategy, they are partnering with specific websites such as Nascar.com.

Microsoft - continues to offer discounts and cash back promotions though its Live.com search engine.  Through these promotions and brand partnerships, they hope to become a strong competitor in e-commerce based searches.