[...] launching the all new, bright & shiny Live search engine in 2006, which mimicked Google’s simplified search-centric style, introducing loads of changes & new features to their engine, and more recently paid to have [...]

“I don’t have to comb through the results to find what I am searching for. (Basically I don’t want to have to think about it )”

You’re absolutely right. The results in MSN are riddled with spam, and Yahoo peppers their natural results with nearly undetectable paid inclusions.

Google’s results are simply better – in part because they are fully invested in search. They’re not spread across multiple primary channels – like content production/management, developing buggy operating systems – and their homepage is a great reflection of that singular focus.

1. On the point that you had made about cluttered home pages, I actually don’t mind the gossip on the homepage of MSN or the stocks on Yahoo!’s, but guess what… I am more invested in what is happening with additional content that I don’t search! This is how they make money and are taking me away from it!

2. I tried to use MSN (Live search)and the results were so irrelevant that I stopped using it. I then tried Yahoo! to see if they were any better… not impressed. Google is successful because they deliver what I am looking for, bringing me back for more. I trust their results and made them my default search because I don’t have to comb through the results to find what I am searching for. (Basically I don’t want to have to think about it )

If MSN and Yahoo!’s main goal is to have people perform searches to create more impressions for keywords so they can charge advertisers and make more money, then they need to stop frustrating me with irrelevant results and keep me focused on the goal of visiting a search engine in the first place… to perform a search.