This is bad news for Microsoft, which believed Bing would be the company’s big bang in this lucrative market.

But that’s apparently not to be. Despite a heavy ad campaign and plenty of hype, Bing seems to actually be losing its share of the market. For April, it ranked third among search engines and lost 2% of the market it had previously gained to finish at an anemic 9.43%.

Yahoo, the second place finisher for the month, has a little more than 14% of U.S. searches — and it lost about 1% of its share last month as well.

Seems that users are creatures of habit, and unless a search engine provides something unique or additional to the searching experience, there’s little reason to switch from what works.

If Bing has something special, it seems to be lost on the Web traveling public.

It would seem recent hacks that have targeted some of Google’s popular services may be responsible for the decision.

Also on the no-support list: Mozilla’s Firefox 2.0, Apple’s Safari 2.0 and Google’s own Chrome 3.0.

This latest call by Google to “drop IE6″ adds to the chorus of service and site providers  imploring users and businesses to get rid of the nearly nine-year-old browser.

But that’s easier said than done. Some legacy systems still rely on the old version of the browser and making the change for these folks could be tremendously complicated.

Even Microsoft itself has been urging users to make the switch.

Last week, Google announced a bug-bounty program that will pay researchers for each vulnerability they report in the browser and its underlying open-source code.

Base bounty: $500 per bug. But a particularly nasty or insidious rascal could net the finder a fee of $1,337.

If that second amount sounds a bit odd — in fact, it is odd — it’s because its a reference to “leet,” a kind of geek-speak used by some researchers. (”Leet” is based on the word “elite” and is meant to imply super powers of accomplishment or prowess.) In this tech language, which has its own alphabet that’s based on various combinations of ASCII characters, “leet” is “spelled” as “1337.”

Of course, this isn’t an original idea. The folks at Mozilla offer a similar reward for browser bugs. (Check out their offer here.)

According to a post at the Chromium blog (where you can get more details on the bounty program), “We will be rewarding select interesting and original vulnerabilities reported to us by the security research community. For existing contributors to Chromium security — who would likely continue to contribute regardless — this may be seen as a token of our appreciation. In addition, we are hoping that the introduction of this program will encourage new individuals to participate in Chromium security. The more people involved in scrutinizing Chromium’s code and behavior, the more secure our millions of users will be.”

Okay, you unmotivated security researchers, get cracking.

Forget those contentious TV ads where Apple and Microsoft mock each other’s operating systems. Think instead of unlikely marriages like Mary Matalin and James Carville, or Bill and Hillary Clinton. Think Microsoft and Apple.

Recent rumors about talks between the two powerhouse computing companies center less on the attractive pairing of the duo and more on their common goal: preventing Google from taking over the technology world.

The gossip du jour: Apple may be in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the iPhone’s default search engine with Microsoft’s “Bing.”

Teaming up would benefit both Microsoft and Apple in different ways when it comes to competing with the search engine giant that is Google.

While Google’s big business is selling ads against search engine results, that’s not something that both rivals are interested in. Of course, Microsoft is scrambling to make a name for itself in that arena, but Apple has no presence there at all.

But Apple does have a serious stake in the consumer electronics industry, and Google’s looking to make a place for itself there in a big way, with things like operating systems, phones, collaborative software, office suites and photos.

The financial implications of a Microsoft/Apple alliance could be huge for the technology sector. The companies tested the waters with Apple’s introduction of dual core processors in their systems and the user-friendliness of Windows 7 has no doubt been influenced by the ease-of-use design models that are an Apple signature.

Crossover software developments have also been a win-win for both companies. The use of iTunes on Windows machines has greatly expanded Apple’s customer base for applications and media.  The availability of Microsoft’s Office Suite for Macs has extended Microsoft’s dominance of the business productivity software market.

These experiments have been financial wins for both companies, but the fierce competition for users of both companies’ operating systems has fueled an ongoing and very public rivalry.

Now a more formal alliance might be in the not-so-distant future.

My guess: The relationship will benefit Microsoft more than Apple, since the former’s been on the ropes in many respects for several years, while the latter’s been soaring with each passing fiscal quarter.

Despite enormous hype and lots of that magic marketing potion called “buzz,” only 20,000 units of the Android-based Nexus One found their way into the hands of actual users. (And these 20,000 don’t necessarily amount to sales, because Google gave away many sets to employees and media.)

Compare that to the iPhone’s 1,600,000 first week of sales, or even the Droid’s respectable 250,000.

Early reviews of the Nexus One were kind but unenthusiastic. Many cited the lack of any “game-changing” feature that would make it the must-have smartphone.

And plenty of analysts have cited the choice of  also-ran carrier, T-Mobile, with its lackluster 3G network as a poor showcase for the new phone.

Reports of customer support problems also didn’t help the new Google phone. The big question: Since Google has no retail stores, where does a customer take a defective Nexus One for service or replacement?

The latest piece of the Nexus One fiasco is the revelation that early termination costs more than the full price cost of the phone. Users who cancel after 14 days are  subject to $550 in early termination fees. T-Mobile gets $200 of that for early termination of the wireless contract, and the other $350 goes to Google as an “equipment recovery fee.”

That’s just the kind of early termination gouging that’s got the FCC officials hot under the collar.

All things considered, it looks like this “iPhone killer” was dead on arrival.

Isa Dick Hackett, daughter of Mr. Dick and the chief executive of Electric Shepherd Productions, which protects her father’s works, is none too pleased that the Google folks have used their “Android” operating system on a phone that plays off the name of an android character called Nexus 6 in Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

That book was adapted into the popular film, “Blade Runner.”

“We feel this is a clear infringement of our intellectual-property rights,” said Isa Dick Hackett.

“Our legal team is dealing head-on with this,” she said, somewhat ominously.

The dust up could cast a shadow over the reasonably successful launch of the new phone.

Of course it will only be fans of the sci-fi author who’ll make the connection, but that may be enough for the Dick estate to make a successful court trademark challenge.

The other Google phone that uses the Android platform is called the “Droid” and that name was licensed from Lucas films, which featured numerous human-like, robotic creatures dubbed “droids” in the Star Wars films.

Might have been wise for Google to avoid a dust up with the heirs of a much-admired sci-fi writer if they were going to use his work as inspiration for naming their new phone.

Travel over to Apple’s App Store — and don’t get trampled by the flood of customers who’ve headed in the same direction. Seems the company’s online download emporium has been hit with more than a 50% sales increase in the past month.

Overall, the App Store saw a 51% increase in downloads from November to December (downloads only increased by 15% from October to November).

And the day after Christmas was a download palooza, with iPod Touch download volume experiencing a nearly 1,000% jump in downloads.

Seems like a lot of “tweens” got the iPod Touch for Christmas.

The day after Christmas has turned into “Download Day” for electronics lovers. And with that day falling on a weekend this year, downloads appear to have been especially brisk.

While many industry watchers believed Motorola’s Droid, with its Android OS, might challenge Apple’s domination of the handheld device market, that doesn’t seem to be happening. However,  Droid downloads did increase 20% during the same time frame — nothing close to Apple’s marketplace activity.

The numbers on this come from Flurry, the big mobile app analytics company. A review of the data leaves just one conclusion possible: The iPhone is burying the Droid and continuing to lead the pack when it comes to handheld devices.

According to industry specialists over at TechCrunch, “App Store downloads are 13 times greater than the Android Market. Additionally, the fact that the already-mature App Store saw a 50% monthly growth rate versus the Android Market’s 20% is impressive. One would think that the App Store growth would plateau at some point, but it doesn’t show any signs of leveling off just yet.”

Impressive if you’re an Apple fan. Disturbing if you’re pulling for Google and Motorola.

That’s right, you’ve now got another browser to try out.

According to its development team, who only give their first names on the Chrome Web site, by the way, Chrome for Mac took:

• 73,804 lines of Mac-specific code written
• 29 developer builds
• 1,177 Mac-specific bugs fixed
• 12 external committers and bug editors to the Google Chrome for Mac code base, 48 external code contributors
• 64 Mac Minis doing continuous builds and tests
• 8,760 cups of soft drinks and coffee consumed
• 4,380 frosted mini-wheats eaten.

I’m not sure I believe the mini-wheats stat. Anybody who writes code knows that a project like this takes at least 10,000 of the little buggers.

To download the Beta version, visit here.

In most cases, you’ve gotta buy at least a cup of coffee to get the login and password to a commercial operation’s WiFi network.

And some coffee shops and bars that provide free WiFi are starting to hustle folks along — looking to free up tables and get customer turnover.

The latest WiFi freebie with a few strings attached: Google’s providing “free” wireless Internet access at 47 U.S. airports through January 15, 2010 (the free access began today, November 16, 2009).

They’re also providing free WiFi access on all Virgin Atlantic flights for the holiday season.

Of course, you have to be a ticketed passenger to get into an airport these days, and so far, nobody’s offering free flights on Virgin Atlantic — that we’ve heard of.

One way to lower your costs: Win one of the prizes Google’s offering in their photo contest by submitting a picture of yourself using the free WiFi in a participating airport or on a Virgin Atlantic flght.

The burning question: How will they be able to tell you’re actually using WiFi?

Google’s also matching any donation to its list of favorite charities — but only up to a $250,000 gift.

Oh, and one more thing: The search giant is hoping you’ll try out their new “Chrome” browser while you’re at it. Chrome’s only available currently to PC users, but word is that a Beta of the Mac version will be ready by early December (but don’t quote us on that!)

See, there really is no free WiFi.

To read more about the details of Google’s offer and learn which airports are participating, visit here.

Researchers at the search giant published a paper not long ago that showed servers failing at a much higher rate at 59 degrees than at 122.

The paper’s authors used data from more than 100,000 SATA and PATA drives with 80-400 GB capacities.

While Google’s data centers dwarf those of the average small or mid-size firm, the company’s using servers similar in size and type, shunning the pricey RAID-class disks.

To read an abstract of the Google research paper or to download a PDF of the whole study, click here.