RSSBing bites Google very, very slightly
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published July 1, 2009, 10:32 AM
The latest usage share data tabulated by StatCounter, a private Web analytics service, confirms that Microsoft's new Bing search engine really did capture usage share of US Web users from rival Google, without damaging share numbers for #2 search engine Yahoo. Just how bad was the damage? Bing gained 0.42% usage share in June from predecessor Windows Live's US numbers, while Google's declined by about that much.
Bing's US-based usage share now stands at 8.23%, StatCounter estimates, based on numbers that closed out yesterday, June 30. This compared to Yahoo at 11.04% and Google at 78.48%.
StatCounter's analysts called the event a "positive trend." We put this trend on a little graph for ourselves, and we estimated that if Microsoft were to keep up this trend indefinitely at this rate -- capturing just under half a percent per month from Google -- it could catch up to the American search engine leader in nine years.
From a global perspective, though, the trend doesn't look so predictable: Ever since Bing consolidated the search services of Windows Live and MSN, Bing's global numbers have not consistently outperformed the trend for its two predecessors combined. Only in recent days, Bing has outperformed Windows Live/MSN globally, according to StatCounter's statistics, by about a third of one percent. This while Google's usage share numbers flirt with the 90% mark.
However, StatCounter's statistics differ dramatically from those being compiled by analytics competitor NetApplications. This morning, NetApplications tallies Google's global usage share at 81.22%, versus StatCounter's last reported 89.45%. And according to NetApplications, Bing is pulling in 5.31% of global searches, while StatCounter estimates that figure to be 3.36%.
So if Microsoft wants to be really hopeful about this, it can tout the fact that the margin of error for these predictions appears to be plus or minus 100%.
Internet Exploder 8 had an upswing during its first weekend and then, people went back to work and used the browser their company had selected. Since then, it's been downhill for IE8.
Isn't Bing just Windows Live Search with a difference name and Microsoft is trying to sell the advertising company that did the work to introduce it as Bing?
In a month, Google and Yahoo! will be doing just fine and no one will remember about Bing any more than Ask (Jeeves?), AltaVista, or those others than I can't remember.
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|When Bing first came out I checked it out and took it for a spin, and as for as search results I was unimpressed. But Bing has eye candy, which after a while did get on my nerves :)
I'm always looking for the next improvement in search engines and Bing is not it. Even Google is getting to be a pain. I always try to look for reviews and opinions about products I'm looking to buy, and at first Google was great for this but not corporations (evil pricks) are really good at placing themselves at the top or near top of searches. So now I try a search term like nokia camera something review opinions and what I find is a large list of sites that want to sell me the camera. So I keep flipping the pages until I find what I'm looking for.
I'll keep waiting and working harder with my searches to find what I"m looking for :)
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|Without reading the article,I'd have to say Bing's bite resembles that of a toothless blind chihuahua.
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|Bing is more like that turd which will not drop; it just hangs there and you wiggle and shake, yet it just hangs there, until finally, ploop, it drops and goes away only to pop up new again in a year or two. How many tries has Microsoft failed? How many shareholder dollars has it pissed away on search?
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|Wow.
Silverturd...
"bing is like turd"....
You need to seek help.
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|I am not on either side BUT everytime I eneter a URL in my PC that is not in my cookies Bing pops up as if i searched with it and I have to click to get to the page that I entered on the address bar sooooooo are the numbers skewed???
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|I don't think looking at these numbers will be worthwhile until Bing has been around for approximately 6 months to a year. Honestly, these could still be curiosity searches. Not that I have anything for or against Bing, in fact the competition can only help improve search engines as a whole. I think it's too soon to say whether or not it's a success or a failure.
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|what is a "bite" that is "very very slightly"?
do you mean a "nibble"?
sounds like a "guppy" skimming the surface of a whale tank.
mr. fulton, surely you can put more teeth into this article.
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|While MS putting out Bing was news, I don't see a 0.42% in one month really that news worthy. Give us a yell when they pull out like maybe at least 10% in one month.
Though, I do predict that Bing will increase it's user base just on the name alone. It's catchy like Google or Yahoo and you just know that a lot of people will use it based on just it's name alone.
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|yes, i agree.
adding insult to injury, in the same time period "bing" failed to take any market share away from google.
instead google made further gains, albeit ever so slightly towards the 100% finish line.
for bing being promoted as a race horse, it seems to be trailing behind a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick, ie yahoo.
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