Based on the report release by Hitwise, 2009 witnessed Google in the top spot, Yahoo Mail in second spot, the core Yahoo search in the fourth spot, Microsoft’s Live Mail in the sixth spot, the Yahoo search page in eighth spot, and MSN in ninth spot. This signifies that 6 of the top 10 sites belonged to one of the search engine giants.

Presently, in 2010, Facebook has reached the number one slot. The Yahoo properties remain chiefly unaffected; Yahoo Mail is now in third , the core Yahoo page is in fourth, and the Yahoo search page is in ninth. For the time being, Microsoft seems to be creeping up. MSN grabbed the number 6 slot, and while Live Mail dropped to position eight, Bing crept into the tenth slot.

Though it may look like Yahoo and MSN are closing the gap on Google, it should be noted that there’s a major gap between the second and third slots for 2010. While Google’s third place ranking is from having around seven percent of all online traffic, Yahoo Mail’s third place position depicts only about three percent.

The above study is based on pages that obtain visits most recurrently, and is based far more on repeat visits than it is on exclusive visitors.

Within the next couple days, Google will be launching a new enhancement to its search platform with its newest addition of Google Instant.  Google Instant is a new feature that shows results to the user as the user types, without even touching the search button. Infact every letter the user inputs, updates the search results in view of that. It was really exciting to watch this major transformation today created by Google.

Google has always been an supporter of simplicity, Google estimates the latest improvement can save around 2-5 seconds for every search. The new system also enhanced on the prediction feature that’s been utilized by Google and many of the other search engines like Yahoo, MSN, and Bing. The smarter prediction will help guide users through their searches, making it simple even if you’re not precisely sure what your  searching for.

The following corresponding output was obtained while typing in each of the  letters a s m in the search:

Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of Search Products stated that the user benefits of Google Instant are numerous but the primary one is time saved. Mayer announced the novel feature at the company’s launch event in San Francisco yesterday.

Google Instant is presently only available for desktop searches, but the company announced that it is at this time also working on the mobile version, which will be released soon.

The amalgamation is a great move for Yahoo, for whom the market share dropped over the last year. For the moment, Bing, which began in 2009, has seen its share steadily climb. While Yahoo brings abundant search engine experience to the table, Bing can bring can launch a fresh start to the partnership.

Presently, Bing is powering Yahoo’s search results in English within the United States as well as Canada. People who visit Yahoo’s search will notice “Powered by Bing” at the bottom of each page to officially indicate the partnership between the two services.

In future, other languages are expected to be added for more of an global flair. In addition to the standard search engine services, Bing and Yahoo will also merge their advertising services. Yahoo and MSN are working on a total shift over to Microsoft’s adCenter, which is the company’s advertising service that provides pay-per-click advertisements to those involved. They hope to complete the shift this fall, appropriate for the holiday season. Bing and Yahoo will divide advertising revenue once everything is finished.

It would be interesting to notice how search engine technologies develop as competition increases, and what type of response Google will have in this search engine race.