Microsoft’s rather lax search engine Live is currently languishing in third place behind Google and Yahoo in the Search Engine Market. While this is simply because they failed to realise the Search Engine potential when they dominated the Internet market they have recently tried to get back to the top.

To do this Microsoft have announced a Cash back option for users who shop via the Microsoft Live Search Engine. This is in my opinion going to be a boost for microsft simply because Advertisers will only have to Pay Per Sale, rather than for every Click (The technology currently used by Google and Yahoo).

In Laymans Terms this simply means merchants advertising via Microsoft will only ever pay for the sales they make.

The bad news is this is only available in the US, Sorry to all thos hoping to make some cash overseas!

This Cashback system will work quite simply by giving a designated rebate when a consumer enters certain sponsored stores via the MSN Search Engine. This can then be reclaimed by services such as Paypal and can sometimes give a significant saving.

Unfortunately for Microsoft however I believe they are simply too late. People are very comfortable with Google, they know it, they have its toolbars installed and it slink in their favorites. The old and young alike are using Google, meaning that not only is the current generation but also the generation after it are now used to using Google.

Microsoft also face a twofold problem. Firstly their market share of the search engine usage is overinflated, due to their Internet Explorer app often Taking control of mis-spelled web addresses and taking the user to live search results. This is incredibly frustrating to most of us who simply mistyped one letter, and then had to retype out the entire URL because of this Microsoft interference.

The Second Problem Microsoft faces is its Branding.

Most people who want to try Microsoft Search will try Microsoft.com windows.com or a myriad of other microsoft brands. This leads them onto more complicated websites. This confusion is a major pain when compared to Googles clean simple Interface, which leaves the Google Brand for searching and has its numerous other products behind the main page.