REDMOND, WA — After its failed bid to absorb financially troubled Yahoo!, software giant Microsoft Corp. set its sights on a different kind of challenge to search category leader Google. On Tuesday, Microsoft confirmed it is testing a new search engine based on semantics.Kumo, in private beta among Microsoft employees, differs from both Google and Yahoo! in that it reportedly can understand human language usage and relationships between words.

“There’s a good deal of excitement brewing over this test, both internally and externally, which we’re always glad to see,” Microsoft Live Search General Manager Mike Nichols wrote on a corporate blog. “Our hope is that our employees will give us great feedback on our new features and that it all becomes part of the external experience soon.”

Although Microsoft leads the software market for applications like computer operating systems and Web browsers, the company’s Live Search never has risen higher than a distant third behind category leaders Google and Yahoo! Microsoft hopes to change that in order to capture a more significant share of the profitable search-advertising business, which is projected to be worth more than $20 billion globally this year. According to studies, Google has claimed more than 50-percent of global search revenues since 2005.

In an internal memo leaked earlier this week, Microsoft Senior Vice President Satya Nadella told Microsoft employees Kumo is designed to reduce the amount of time people spend searching online. Statistics indicate nearly half of all Internet searches tie up users for 20 minutes or more, Nadella noted.

“We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search, but accomplish tasks,” Nadella wrote. “During the test, features will vary by country, but you’ll see results organized in a way that saves you more time.”

Last year Google claimed more than 60-percent of the U.S. search market. Yahoo! followed with a 21-percent market share, and Live Search trailed with an embarrassing 8.5-percent.