As Microsoft ramps up to launching a new improved version of it’s search service we’re wondering if it’s efforts to recapture lost ground may be in vain.

We picked up on the announcement courtesy of FT.com who reported that the new rebranded Live.com Microsoft search service should be launching “in a few days” in a bid to “make it more competitive in a key part of internet business”.

Whether or not the financial investment will pay-off for Microsoft in the long-run we don’t know, but with it’s current search service languishing on just 8% of market share virtually the only way is up. To put that in perspective the Google search behemoth currently accounts for 64% of search traffic, according to Comscore.

The problem for Microsoft now is that playing catch-up is never easy, with Google amassing huge R&D budgets for it’s “core business” as well as side projects there’s a significant amount of ground to be made up if they hope to be a major player in the search arena.

As for us end-users, well, Google has garnered a lot of faith in it’s search facility and so swaying our opinion will be an even harder task than playing catch-up in the development stakes, so, with Microsoft’s search ebbing at an all-time low, is it too little, too late for Live.com?