Couldn’t Help But Notice (071707)

Wal-Mart is going to start selling religious toys. Can’t wait for the hysterical reax to this.

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In June, Microsoft (up to 13.2% from 10.3%) is reported to have gained search share from Google (down from 50.7% to 40.5%) and Yahoo! (down from 26.4% to 25.1%), but:

It was “due in large part to Live Search Club, a program launched by Microsoft in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search,” comScore said.

Compete, another Internet metrics company, last week also reported that Microsoft had seen its share of the U.S. search market rise. Most of that gain was attributable to Live Search Club.

Users of Microsoft Live Search Club claim that people are using macros and other software to automate Live Search Club queries for the sake of collecting prizes awarded for playing Live Search-based games.

Even if the gain is legit, will searchers stay only as long as the freebies are attractive? Can Microsoft continue giving stuff away indefinitely? Google isn’t Netscape.

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Good news from the chip world — Intel has begun aggressively reducing prices on its best stuff, the Quad Core processors, about 40% or so. That should translate to cheaper and more powerful PCs rather soon.

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John Fund finds Democratic budget-cutting:

The new Democratic Congress has finally found a government agency whose budget It wants to cut: an obscure Labor Department office that monitors the compliance of unions with federal law.

In the past six years, the Office of Labor Management Standards, or OLMS, has helped secure the convictions of 775 corrupt union officials and court-ordered restitution to union members of over $70 million in dues. The House is set to vote Thursday on a proposal to chop 20% from the OLMS budget. Every other Labor Department enforcement agency is due for a budget increase, and overall the Congress has added $935 million to the Bush administration’s budget request for Labor (DOL’s budget in 2004 according to Wiki was almost $60 million. — Ed.). The only office the Democrats want to cut back is the one engaged in union oversight.

Figures.

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The Iraqi government, at 8-for-18, is being characterized as a laggard in meeting benchmarks. Then what do you call Congress, which, as Mike at Flopping Aces notes, is batting 1-for-10 against benchmarks it set for itself?

Related: Here’s a Dan Riehl-produced video (Riehl’s post is here) of the progress of security handovers in Iraq that you’ll NEVER see reported by the Associated Press or other Old Media outlets.

Consumers of exclusively Old Media “news” will have to admit that they had no idea Iraqis were handling their own security in so much of the country. Maybe someone should do a similar video charting ICE’s success in rounding up illegals in the US who are under orders to be deported for comparison. It would be an easy one to make, as it would require only one still shot.