Microsoft Trying to Leverage IE to Topple Google: Another Failed Strategy

Good piece on Forbes.com about how Microsoft is trying to redefine and expand the search landscape into a battlefield on which it can defeat Google. The newest incarnations of Internet Explorer feature a different approach to search which enables the user to select a single search destination source (e.g., Wikipedia, Amazon, Facebook) for the search to be conducted against.

I predict abysmal failure. How many times do you know up front which destination is likely to have the thing you want to search for? And when you do, wouldn't you just go to that site and conduct your search using their built-in mechanisms? This looks and feels like yet another attempt by Microsoft to guess what users want in terms of search rather than observing and asking us.

The good news is that, according to the Forbes report at least, Microsoft is taking a very hands-off approach, letting destination sites manage their own search process and format results as they wish. One part of the bad news: 27 Web sites have already signed up to use the no-obligation service, greatly complicating the life of a user who might otherwise perhaps be inclined to try a particular search site or destination.