Not only is the Web-search giant Google at odds with Apple, Microsoft's assault on Google in Internet search and search advertising through its own search engine "Bing" serves as another attack on the homefront as competitive challenges mount in the technology industry.

Microsoft's assault on rival Google in Internet search and search advertising is said to be the steepest competitive challenge in business today, and the most costly. Attempts to go head-to-head with Google costs Microsoft upward of $5 billion a year, industry executives and analysts estimate, according to The New York Times.

"Bing" is a big money-loser for Microsoft, shedding billions of dollars per year, but the company is far from giving up on beating Google in the search engine wars. In search, Google has it in spades, and Microsoft, against the odds, wants to reverse it.

In a New York Times article published over the weekend, Microsoft laid out its long-term plans for Bing and hints at new features to come.

The article reported that Microsoft plans to bring 'Bing' to the forefront with features:

Rich Web Apps
Expect Web apps based on HTML5 to play a big role in Bing's future. Qi Lu, president of Microsoft's online services division, describes typing a phrase like "dinner for two on Friday and movie after," and having Bing draw on your personal data -- location, movie and film preferences and so on - to deliver results.

A Desktop App and Beyond

Microsoft is working on software, still in the concept stage, called Bing DeskBar. Like Google's existing Google Desktop software, the DeskBar would incorporate local files and Web searches, but it'll also have a "people" category to search e-mails and messages from Facebook and Twitter.

Search Filter

Information will be sorted by "what's most recent, relevant and frequently used," one designer said, and may use the live tile design that Microsoft is introducing to many of its products. There's no word on when this product will launch, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a big feature in Windows 8.

"The goal has always been the same," Amit Singhal, a computer scientist who leads Google's search team, told the Times. "The progression is from data to useful information to knowledge that answers questions people have or helps them do things. Knowledge is the quest."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted how difficult it is to win over Google at its own game and addressed that the only way to do so is to alter the playing field and do things in a different way.

Currently, Microsoft is trying to find a way to move away from the "10 blue links" model. "For most people, Google is search - they go to Google without even thinking about it. We've got to develop our own habits, of people trying Bing," said Brian MacDonald from Microsoft's Core Search Program Management.

Microsoft's share of the U.S. search market grew 11% to 14.1% in June, compared to a 12.7 % share in the same month a year ago, according to the latest data from comScore. Over the same period, Google's share increased 4.6%, to 65.5%.

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