Microsoft has always been applauded for its softwares and Windows. However, Microsoft is not able to capture the interest of Internet users. In February 2005 Microsoft search accounted for 14% of all users and Google accounted for 46%. However, in two years time this data has slipped to just 9.6% of all Internet users. And Google's fan following has grown from 46% to 56%.

Microsoft is also losing its key employees. Blake Irving, Vice President of Windows Live Platform group, will leave the company later this year. Christopher Payne, Vice President of Windows Live Search, will also leave Microsoft to start his own company.

A report by Business Week informs:
Microsoft's search problems present it with a huge quandary. The company's revenue from online advertising is relatively small–just $836 million in the first six months of the fiscal year ending in June, vs. $5.9 billion in sales of the Windows PC operating system. But the Web is increasingly the place where computing gets done. Everything from e-mail to customer-relationship management applications is moving from programs on a PC to services on the Net. Meanwhile search advertising is exploding: Piper Jaffray & Co. says it should hit $44.5 billion by 2011, up from $15.8 billion in 2006.

If Microsoft can't keep pace, it risks seeing its Windows and Office software franchises erode as Google and others launch Web-based rivals. "It behooves Microsoft to be there," says Charles Di Bona, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "If they don't get there, it gives others a platform from which to attack Microsoft's core business."

The statistics may project that Microsoft may not have a bright online future. However, Microsoft's AdCenter shows a great deal of promise. With all the development and introduction of new tools Microsoft still holds enough promise.

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