Interesting: Microsoft Explains Why the Start Menu Needed to Die.
That may be an exaggeration of sorts, but a blog post by Microsoft explained that the used of the Start menu dipped by 11 percent between Windows Vista and Windows 7, with many specialized Start functions - such as exploring pictures - declining as much as 61 percent.
I can't say I disagree with this, when running Windows I tend to either use the search, or as a way to hit the control panel or a couple of pinned apps, but very rarely traverse through the all programs menu tree....