Bing use inches up in February

Microsoft's Bing grabbed 11.5 percent of all search queries in the U.S. in February, slightly higher than its 11.3 percent share the prior month, according to the latest figures from ComScore.

Yahoo, which recently won regulatory approval over a search technology and advertising deal with Microsoft, captured 16.8 percent of all queries, a slight decline of 0.2 percent from January. But Google remains the search engine champ, winning 65.5 percent of all the searches run last month, up 0.1 percent from January.

Trailing the list was the Ask Network in fourth place with 3.7 percent of all search requests, followed by AOL with a 2.5 percent slice of all searches in February.

(Credit: ComScore)

To put those percentages into real numbers, people online ran 14.5 billion searches in the U.S. last month. Google captured 9.5 billion of those, Yahoo accounted for 2.4 billion, Microsoft grabbed 1.7 billion, and Ask and AOL took home the rest.

Following its debut last summer, Bing's share of all U.S. search queries has steadily crept a bit higher over the past several months. Yahoo's share has been declining, while Google's has generally remained about the same. As Microsoft and Yahoo move forward on their new search partnership, the two are hoping to bump up their search rankings and advertising to finally take a bigger bite out of Google.

[myles taylor]

So let's see....Yahoo! dropped and Microsoft gained that same amount....real puzzler here.

[Super2online]

Yeah, but notice they aren't going to Google, or they would have gone there already! This is holding true every new update we get. Google stays about the same, Microsoft gains, Yahoo loses. My guess is that Microsoft will wind up in the 40-45% range within the next 2-3 years and in the low 30's soon after taking over for Yahoo.

[myles taylor]

My point is that people are happy with Google overall. The Yahoo! people are the ones who are looking for something else and willing to try out other things. And they aren't using Google for a reason. They probably don't like it.

[ColorOfSun]

Yeah lets see...Yahoo dropped 0.2% and Bing gained 0.2%. Brilliant! They are really gaining on Google.

[Seaspray0]

My silly outrageous prediction based on short term results is that in 100 years bing will have over 200% of the search market. All the others will be negative.

[WinNoMo]

Of course they're gaining. By leveraging their monopoly in operating systems to push their browser, which pushes their search engine.

Before you start crying about the practices of other companies, keep in mind that they have not legally been found to hold a monopoly so they are legally held to a different standard.

Bring it MS apologists!

[rapier1]

I use bing on my PowerBook. It's a decent engine and I'm not really sure what your problem is.

[topgunb2]

iphone not having bing in the default search engine list is also a monopoly

[WinNoMo]

BottomGun:
Wrong. Monopoly is a legal term. Decided by the legal system. Not by you. Try again.

[WinNoMo]

Raper1:
Good for you. You made a choice. No problem there. The problem is when a company, found guilty of abusing a monopoly, extends themselves into yet another market by leveraging their monopoly yet again. Which is why they were forced to offer a ballot of browsers in Europe. So they should have to offer a ballot of search engines as well, instead of making Bing the default. I know, it sucks. But that is the price you pay for being a monopoly. Especially a monopoly that was found guilty of abusing it in a court of law.

[fudbuster77]

I use the Bing app on my iPhone as the results are more relavant than what I get using Google.

As for WinNoMo- you'r opinion is well known here for being biased and people can treat your comments here accordingly.

I admit I'm a Mac fan, unabashedly, but even I wouldn't fall to your level. You're giving Mac users a bad name and I would appreciate it if you would stop with your bashing. You're not helping our reputation at all.

[WinNoMo]

Pudbuster:
Your bridges were burned, and now it's your turn
To cry, cry me a river
Cry me a river-er
Cry me a river
Cry me a river-er, yea yea

[baconstang]

As arbitrary as it may seem, I compare search engines by who gives me the best results when I search myself. Currently Google wins by an order of magnitude.

[zmb09]

Just because Windows defaults to Bing doesn't mean that you have to use it.

[Seaspray0]

@WinNoMo. I do not judge being a monopoly as good or bad, nor do I care if a company is or was a monopoly. Nor is your criteria correct on what a monopoly is. A company is a monopoly if they meet the legal definition. No more, no less. Google is a monopoly, Apple is a monopoly, Microsoft is a monopoly, even AT&T holds a monopoly... so what? Based on the support those companies recieve from the public, you are an extreme minority who still beleives in monopolies are evil. Even Matt Assey (COO of Ubuntu) who writes articles for cnet would tell you microsoft is not the same monster they were over 10 years ago. Grow up and get over it. Please TrollNoMo.

[Seaspray0]

@baconstang. "...when I search myself." I know what you meant to say, but think about what you wrote... like I did with triangles. :-)

[RamaSubbu_SK]

Welcome to Good Competition :)
This increase will boost Bing team to improve a lot.
This increase will make Google innovating more & quicker.

We (end users) are ultimate benefit :)

I like : http://www.bing-vs-google.com

[t8]

And 50% of Bing searches came from Redmond for some reason.

[fudbuster77]

Funny!

Now back it up with facts.

Not Funny!

[Seaspray0]

"Now back it up with facts." A mile is 5,280 feet. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The sum of the angles in a triangle adds up to 360 degrees. At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees Celcius.

Now it's funny.

[baconstang]

EEEEEHHHHH! Wrong! 180 degrees in a triangle.

[Seaspray0]

Ok, it's been a long while since Trigonometry.

[baconstang]

Right. No one ever uses that hyper-technical jargon like "180" or "360' after the 'pass' trig.

[make_or_break]

@ baconstang:

Now that WAS funny!
+1

[jsjohnson]

I think Bing will gain a large boost in the lock-in to WP7. Although I'm sure Bing will be optimized to run on WP7 and I may even like it, I hope I still have a choice to use whichever search engine I like as my default.

[QA_Tester]

Bing optimized to run on desktop? Bing lives on a server as such it cannot be optimized for the client

[t8]

I think he means that it will be the default search and will be hard wired into the OS.

[nemrel]

Bing use is up on my end because it is the embedded search setting on my Verizon cell phone - which makes me pissed! Not only is Bing the default search setting on my Env2, a setting I cannot change. Plus Verizon charges me for data usage charges - yet it collects advertising on ALL the mobile pages I go to on my device. So I pay them my hard earned money in order to see advertisements they ALSO get money from. Not to mention the ads are counted as part of my data usage - meaning every ad they put on a page is kilobytes/megabytes used against what I am allotted with my data plan. I can't wait to jump ship and buy a phone with an open source cell phone OS like Android.

[fudbuster77]

So your real complaint isn't about the OS or the phone or the search engine-

It's with your cellular service provider.

[t8]

Break free. Get an Android device and use whatever provider and search engine you want.

[jessiethe3rd]

Break with Droid? Doesn't one have to have a Gmal account to use a Droid which in-turn Google tracks all your information on your phone including search habits, application habits, etc?

[jweikel]

So here's the deal: I have Yahoo! as my home page. If I want to do a real search, I just type it in the url box (I use Chrome). However, sometimes I lolnoobmoment and start typing away as soon as the window opens, and Yahoo! proceeds to autoshift my focus from the url box to its search box. What's my point? Not much, but somewhere in that 16.8% is my accidental query searches. I really want to use Google 8p

[jweikel]

I really "wanted" ^

[zebra148]

Bing is the buggiest search engine there is and so intrusive wish there was a way of blocking it for good. thank god it not taken over Firefox. I have gotten 3 spyware infections from Bing already. So if I never have to use it will be happy, If not on Google or Yahoo, then I guess I do not need to find it. Microsoft should use the time and effort to fix their programs like office and windows.

[WinNoMo]

But they know if they can own a market like operating systems and office productivity software, they can leverage themselves into other markets and keep their prices high. Have you seen the cost of Windows and Office? OMG! Who knows what they can control if they can dominate search.

[fudbuster77]

Excellent points to make here!

However, I'm curious how a search engine put three spyware infections on your computer. Doesn't that require YOU to go to a compromised site or to actively install things by clicking on popups?

Sounds like to me that the problem isn't with the search engine, but with how you use a computer.

Solution? Get a Mac. They are made for folks like you and me- we need to be protected from our own mistakes. :)

[Seaspray0]

Better yet, set www.google.cn as your search engine. But you better hurry, they're talking about removing the filtering.

[Super2online]

Good point fudbuster77. But the problem with so many people is that they are just itching for an opportunity to slam anything they don't like. WinNoMo knows gets no respect here, and is even admonished repeatedly for his behavior, but that doesn't matter evidently. It pleases him to score points with like minded readers and allows him to fight the good fight in his mind, which also happens to raise him to a level that makes him feel good about himself. It's basically a severe case of insecurity run amuck.

[santuccie]

@fudbuster77:

As far as Vista and Windows 7 are concerned, you're right; there are no remote exploits in the wild at this moment that can get past their defenses, only Trojans. However, I hope you understand that the reason Mac users are usually "protected from their own mistakes" is not because of inherent security, but because of incompatibility with the platform. However, there are some Trojans out there that come in the form of so-called codecs to watch a video, and some of these are cross-platform; they work on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The thing that really gets people when they initially learn about it is that the Mac's authentication mechanism is far from watertight. It's easy enough to launch a program on demand without an authentication prompt, even remote code in the case of Leopard and earlier versions (don't know about Snow Leopard yet). Once the code is running at user level, all it takes is a privilege escalation exploit (and there are plenty) to slip by authentication.

At this point in time, yes, Mac users are far less likely than Windows users to encounter malware. Something I see daily is rogue antivirus products, which are getting over on everybody because they have long been conditioned to close popups by clicking the red "X" button, which in this case is cunningly crafted to install the malware anyway. But this is only status quo, and subject to change. Remember that the first PC virus was five years predated by the first Mac virus; the tide can always turn back.

The best solution for anyone, be they PC or Mac, is fourfold: 1. Switch to a DNS service that helps filter your Internet content, such as Comodo Secure DNS. 2. Watch what you download. Install a Web rating tool to help steer you clear of sites that are malicious by nature, and antimalware if you're unable to leave the warez alone (not recommended. 3. Understand, and let others know, that Security Tool and other rogue antivirus products will be installed if you click the close (X) button. You can avoid infection by terminating the browser from the task manager or rebooting the machine. 4. If the use of a resident antivirus monitor is against your religion, at least backup your hard disk. In fact, you should do this regardless, as all hard drives and even SSDs will eventually die. Whether you use Windows XP, Windows 7 x64, or OpenBSD, the MOST secure computer is one that is backed up.

Hope this helps!

[QA_Tester]

Yeah and Bing made you go to porn sites. And get better security software

[jessiethe3rd]

"I hate Microsoft."
"Microsoft sucks"
"Down with Bing!"
"Up with Google... they're the do no evil company!"

You guys have serious problems. Competition is good for innovation.

[inachu1]

My default search provider is google in the IE BHO thingy.

Did a windows update and it defaulted to bing.
I then try to visit my companies internal email system from home and IE "BING" takes over and says the URL does not exist at all and I got so livid.
So the bing numbers are not a true representation of those who really use bing. They shove it down your throat to try and force you to like it. Well I hate it.

[Angmarr]

HOLY SH** LOOK @ THIS AWESOME GAIN!!!

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5&qpcustom=Bing

[Angmarr]

Ya man look @ these awesome gains

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5&qpcustom=Bing ..lol