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RIM, Microsoft agree to bring Live Search to BlackBerry

By Ed Oswald | Published September 11, 2008, 5:04 PM

After agreeing to allow access to Live Messenger and Hotmail in May, Microsoft's addition of search to its RIM partnership further signifies the company's embrace of Blackberry.

Under the terms of an extended agreement announced this morning, Microsoft's Live Search will be given prominent placement in the Web browser and mapping applications of RIM BlackBerry handsets.

Microsoft says Live Search will enable users to make it the "search engine of choice" for their Web browser, which isn't exactly saying it'll be the default. Meanwhile, the addition of functionality to the mapping application will allow for location-based searches.

While the BlackBerry browser does not have a default search engine per se, the move suggests that RIM may push a link to Live Search to its users through the "service books" which are used to populate BlackBerrys with data and settings to operate with the network.

The move signals a further embrace of the platform, even though Microsoft competes directly with Research In Motion by way of its Windows Mobile 6 OS. In addition to the Windows Live announcements, the company also ported software from its subsidiary Tellme, which Microsoft acquired last April.

Microsoft says it expects the Live Search functionality to be delivered in an update for the BlackBerry OS later this year. At launch, the new functionality should have support for multiple languages.

"This joint endeavor with RIM is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search," Microsoft mobile services head Brian Arbogast said.

Any way Microsoft can bring greater reach for Live Search would help. According to comScore, MSN only has an 8.9% share of the search market as of July, far behind market leader Google. The figures are even worse for Microsoft for mobile searches conducted, where MSN was only able to pull a 5% share among all searches carried out from mobile phones.

Deals like the one with RIM could be helpful to Microsoft, and not only boost its mobile market share, but its total share of search queries overall.

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