Google (GOOG) recently announceda significant revision to its search engine algorithm called Knowledge Graph. This modification uses word associations (in a manner similar to the human brain) to enable it to deliver more relevant search results, thereby enhancing its users’ search experience.

The change came amidst reports that Google has been losing search market share in the U.S. market – which has long been the bulwark of its profitability – to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing search engine. Tallies for April 2012 show that Bing now accounts for about 30% of the U.S.’s online web searches, up over 3 percentage points from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, by April of 2012, Google’s share of U.S. online queries had fallen by almost 3 ½ percentage points, from close to 68% to around 64.4%. Even beleaguered Yahoo (YHOO) saw a moderate uptick of 1% on its search

This is more significant than it seems: Bing’s predecessor, MSN, used to account for just around 9% of the U.S. search market, so it is clear that it has been taking market share away from both Google and (in past years) Yahoo, which used to account for over 20% of U.S. search traffic.

As Microsoft has seen its market share grow, it has gotten bolder. It recently introduced new tweaks to Bing that simplified search results while also integrating Social Network recommendations from Bing users’ Facebook (FB) contacts. Ironically, the other change that Microsoft has implemented has been to streamline Bing’s search results interface, making it more similar to Google’s – perhaps in an attempt to attract loyal Google users.To continue reading, click here.

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