Microsoft has claimed it will have a search engine "twice as good" as Google by this summer as it seeks to up the pressure on its arch-rival.

"What we’re saying is that in six months’ time we’ll be more relevant in the US market place than Google," Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told a technology conference held by Reuters in Paris today.

A Microsoft source told Times Online that while the company has conceded that it will struggle to compete with Google's market dominance in the short term, it feels strongly that the key for future success lies in it providing a service that is "more relevant and accurate" than Google's.

"We're not talking about being twice as big, we're talking about being twice as useful," he said.

Microsoft is investing heavily in the area, pouring at least $100 million into the technology and is determined to exploit Google's current woes.

Google, once a Wall Street darling, has endured a torrid 24 hours after admitting that its revenues cannot keep growing at their current rates. In morning trade in New York today, shares in Google rose $1.10 to $363.72, regaining just a fraction of the $27.76 they lost in the previous session.

Comments from George Reyes, Google's chief finance officer, who said that growth at the company "is slowing" led the stock to fall 7 per cent yesterday.

The remarks were later reconfirmed in a Google statement where the company said that it has maintained for some time that it cannot keep up present rates of growth but insisted it would be able to boost the "monetisation" of its services.

According to Mr Holloway, Microsoft will release a revamped search engine designed to outdo-Google, the current market leader, in the United States and Britain at the same time. The product will then be rolled out over the rest of Europe.

The application will be integrated into Microsoft's widely used communications tools Windows Messenger and Hotmail.

Microsoft's search offering is badly in need of a boost with figures this week from comScore Research, the internet analysts, showing that its MSN search engine dropped to a 13.7 per cent share of the US market in January, from 24.3 per cent in December.

The same figures showed that Google strengthened its hold as market leader in the US in January, accounting for a 41.4 per cent share, up more than six points from a year earlier and up from 40 per cent in December.

No2, Yahoo’s share declined to 28.7 per cent in January, dipping from 29.5 per cent in December.

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