Gee, I hate that Microsoft is one of my most prominent tags, but they are just in the news so much lately.  They announced yesterday a cash back plan for purchases made via their Live Search site.  Paying people is a nice idea.  I’ll take any money Microsoft has to give me, but is that really a meaningful substitute for innovative products?  Google continues to not only dominate the search space, but their share continues to grow. According to this article, Google’s share of search queries is 61.6%, Yahoo’s 20.4%, and Microsoft a piddling 9.1%.  Interesting quote from Citigroup analyst “As Google continues to take share, we continue to believe a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft would be necessary — though not sufficient — to compete effectively with Google.” Agreed.

Business Week has a special section on the Future of Social Networking. Definitely in my current interest area, as I look at the diffusion of social networks. There are several parts in this section, but the study that talks about the gender gap is fascinating.  Apparently, women dominant the social networking space, and women ages 35-50 are the fastest growing segment.  It’s the social aspect that made these “killer apps” for women.