With Bing, Microsoft is definitely trying to make a difference in the search engine market, and while Microsoft's new search engine only launched less than a week ago, web analytics provider StatCounter released some interesting data this morning which shows Bing in the #2 spot ahead of Yahoo Search, and, of course, behind Google. What is interesting, though, is that Bing is mostly taking market share from Google, while the stats for Yahoo Search and AOL have remained stable. According to StatCount, Bing reached a 15.6% market share in the U.S. yesterday (Live Search never made it past 7%), while Google's share was down almost 6%.
Worldwide, StatCounter also sees Bing ahead of Yahoo, but only by less than half a percent (5.17% vs. 5.56%).
Some of this new interest in Microsoft's search engine was definitely driven by curiosity, but unlike other (failed) entries into the search engine market like Cuil, Bing actually delivers as a search engine, which should help Microsoft to retain a good chunk of these users. Of course, Microsoft's $80 million advertising blitz is definitely helping Bing as well, and based on our own experience, it is clear that Bing's marketing and PR campaign is reaching a lot of non-geeks and late adopters who would not typically go out of their way to try a new search engine.
We have to say, though, that our own stats don't corroborate StatCounter's findings. In our own analytics, Bing is barely visible, with Yahoo bringing us at least three times as many visitors. We are, however, not surprised to hear that a lot of users are checking Bing out right now.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Search Engine Market Share
If these stats hold up over the next few weeks, it will be interesting to see if we will still hear any chatter about Microsoft acquiring Yahoo's search assets in order to become a bigger player in the search engine market. Today, a combined Yahoo and Microsoft search engine could control almost 25% of the market. In an interview with PC Magazine this morning, Yahoo's CEO, Carol Bartz, argued that Yahoo was not under any pressure to make a deal with Microsoft, and that she thinks that any lift that Microsoft is seeing in the search market right now would only be temporary.
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Great article about Bing’s relevance. VisiStat’s real-time web analytics now showcases Bing as a relevant search engine. Check it out at VisiStat.com.
interesting post, but we should wait a little bit more to see if bing.com is going to retain these visits or not
I agree with this. Bings results are much like google results and moreover since its launch day many readers are coming to my blog from bing. Rather we can say that Bing is ligh years ahead than cuil.com
I agree with this. Bings results are much like google results and moreover since its launch day many readers are coming to my blog from bing. Rather we can say that Bing is ligh years ahead than cuil.com
Great article about Bing’s relevance
for my opinion Bing is a copy of google search engines
http://officialtech.com/
Bing's launch got a ton of press. Let's see how long it's success lasts after the novelty wears off. I wish MS well. But, seeing as how it's never been all that successful online, I'm skeptical.
I don't really know much about Carol Bartz, but I've read a few interviews/comments by her over the past few weeks and... she seems rather arrogant (as opposed to confident). She says that she feels no added pressure because of Bing (Uh, well... she SHOULD!). Who knows whether Bing's numbers will hold-up or improve (it's still early), but for Bartz to be so arrogant would make me nervous if I was holding any Yahoo stock. I predicted a few days ago (before these numbers came out), that Yahoo will probably go the way of AOL. If Bing becomes a bonefied hit, it may happen even faster than I predicted...
Just one other point... for those who say that Bing is a Google clone... that's simply not true. I mean, yes, if you just do a general search, they're pretty equal (in fact, I give Google an edge here). BUT... if you're looking for flights or shopping for a netbook... and you click on Bing's "shopping" or "travel" links, Bing is superior to Google. I really don't see how someone could argue otherwise. It's just easier with Bing
Gee, there couldn't be any possible correlation between MS making "Dink" the default search for all IE users at THE SAME TIME. Don't get your hopes up, that was the ONLY way MS could get a share like that. Doubt it will ever happen again to!
Gee, did ANYONE notice the correlation between the time MS made "Dink" the default browser for IE and these numbers? What a cheat. Doubt it will ever happen again too.
Completely agree with #9 by C Urrea - this is just the effect of forcing this search engine into IE users. Why are you deliberately ignoring this in the article? It's evident...
This might be a big shift. The question now is how this will affect lots of paid search budgets, as in: Does Microsoft Bing Change Paid Search?
I found that MS has some code in there that seem to ID your location and I don't like it..
I played with Bing and its just hype and Bling with some dark side MS programing.
If you done edting to you FF browser it ok but anyone using this with IE will get over loaded with Ads i bet from MS partners(you the 1000 of spam companies the paid MS so the can get left of the the Spma and AV detection)
and WTH is that back drop for? ITs click able? WH!! WHY who NEEd IT? This will just download more date into memory/ hard drive to slow your system down.
Hell my AV software when nutz and would not let run what ever it was trying to do in a video search in FF in Flock it did but pre-loading video with re-direct to MS data center to store your search info inf i was in IE and on MS live ANY data would be recorded..DO you want your date recored?
Bing is just as I said Hype and MS Bling that turns out to be just all plated BS again just as Win 7 is Vista lite and will be the same hype as Vista
GC
{what C_Urrea said}
MS is preying on the less tech-savvy while they still can.
Y'all better count your lucky stars that Google continues to have success. They're pretty much the only hope to finally challenging Microsoft's OS monopoly (the power of which is on display with their rapid promotion of Bing).
Bing is a replacement name for live.
This bump is obviously a result of the "error" of Bing forcefully changing IE's default search engine. Some error, eh? Well, now that that's fixed, we'll see how long this artificial bump lasts.
If anything, this shows the dismal marketshare of IE -- only 18%?! I'd expect a hugely larger number than that. What's the real number of IE users left out there? Hey you neanderthals, wake up and switch to FF :)
Let's see how long Bing holds up.
Why is there so much emotion (positive and negative) when a news story focuses on Microsoft? Let's stick with the facts and how they might or might not impact us. In what ways is Bing better or worse than Google or Yahoo? How will (or should) Bing's introduction affect marketers? Here are my newest thoughts on Bing, Yahoo!, and Google.
It is too early to just write off Bing. Microsoft may have made a mistake with Live but this time they seem to be better prepared. Bing, within a short time span, has managed to move ahead of Yahoo...however, no doubt, it would need to stick around to challenge Google supermacy. We will have to just wait and watch.
Great article about Bing’s relevance
for my opinion Bing is a copy of google search engines
http://yarismak.com
As the Sopranos would say.
BadaBING.
They coming in hard.
I love bing, after google it's my biggest source of traffic
I'm currently trying to think where threaded comments fit in the roadmap right now, but it is something that is definitely planned. We're not going to say people *have* to use threaded comments, but the system shouldn't restrict people who want to have that option. Plus for larger conversations I think threaded comments make everything easier to follow.
I've noticed that IE plays a little trick. First time you go to Google in a new session the I beam (cursor) blinks three times in the Google search text field, but when you start to type - lo and behold you are actually typing in the address bar and Bing then intercepts that and displays the results.
To what extent has that been a factor in the Bing numbers I wonder?
In my own experience the Bing results are very poor compared to what I get with Google but I guess that could change. I'm not a "fan boy" by the way, just a business user so I don't have an axe to grind.
2-3 years and Bing will beat yahoo search...