According to the latest data from Compete, Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, is still going strong, though even a month after its launch, the majority of Bing's users still switches back and forth between Google and Bing. About 66% of Bing's users also use Google search, and this number has held steady over the last few weeks. 30% of Bing's users also use Yahoo Search, and about 4% use AOL Search. The most interesting aspect of this report, however, is that Google's users seem to be far more interested in trying out a new search engine than users of other services.
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Users are Willing to Experiment, But Don't Switch Completely
Maybe this is not a bad thing. Bing clearly excels in some area (travel, health, and shopping, for example) and can easily compete head-to-head with Google when it comes to standard web searches. At the same time, Google's virtual monopoly position in the search arena (even if it's a natural one) wasn't likely to go unchallenged, and wasn't likely to pan out in a positive way for consumers. Now, if we trust these results from Compete's analysis, more users are using a larger variety of search engines instead of just relying solely on Google, which can only be a good thing.
As Rich Devine from ZAAZ points out in the Compete post, some of the early curiosity around Bing was surely driven by Microsoft's marketing campaign around the service. The data, however, also shows that quite a few users are willing to look at alternatives to their favorite search engines.
Not a Typical Week for Search
We have to note, though, that the last week of June was not a typical week for search engines, as the death's of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett drove more users to search engines, and this brought Bing's audience to over 27 million, up from 21 million in the week right after its launch.
As of now, Google's users aren't running away from the service and making Bing their exclusive search engine, and neither are Bing's users completely loyal to their service. In terms of its overall audience, Bing is also still small compared to Google, but this data shows that users might be more willing to explore alternatives than we used to think.
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