Microsoft gets Bing bump, ComScore says
One of the most visible features of Bing is the striking photo that adorns its home page and changes each day.
(Credit: CNET)Microsoft is getting a bit of a Bing-related bump, according to some early figures from market researcher ComScore.
According to ComScore, Microsoft upped its search share to 11.1 percent last week, as compared to 9.1 percent the prior week. Some of that gain came from the fact that more people were using Microsoft.
Microsoft's engine had 15.5 percent daily penetration, as opposed to 13.8 percent in the prior week.
(Credit:
ComScore)
Earlier data also showed Microsoft off to a solid start with its revamped search engine. Of course, the real issue is whether Microsoft can make the gains stick over time. The software maker has seen its market share tip up over time, only to again drop to single digits.
Microsoft has said it would like to pick up at least a couple points of market share over the next year. One might think that the company should expect more, given it has not only poured huge resources into the technology, but is also spending tens of millions of dollars in both a big advertising push and deals to nab the default search engine position on new PCs.
So far, Bing is off to a good start, said ComScore Senior Vice President Mike Hurt.
"These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," Hurt said in a statement. "So far it appears that the lifts in searcher penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period."
But Hurt agreed that only time will tell whether it is a blip or a true gain. "The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users."
Bing went live last week after being shown off at D: All Things Digital by CEO Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft plans to continue its ad push, including the TV spots, with the current campaign eventually yielding to commercials that focus more specifically on the areas where Bing hopes to differentiate itself--tasks such as travel and product search.
Update 11:20 a.m.: Bing has managed to grab some attention inside Google. Speaking at a financial conference on Tuesday, Google CFO Patrick Pichette said the company is in the process of analyzing it. "I have a review tomorrow on it with the executive committee," Pichette said, according to Marketwatch.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
If they wanted to retain a dominant position they would not skew the results. Advertise their own stuff? Sure. Messing with search results to skew search behavior...a good way to drive everone back to where they came from.
Just as their behavior in computer operating systems is driving everyone to alternatives.
Everyone?
*Looks at OS stats*
Nope. Seems not.
And anyway, are you suggesting that Google having a monopoly on the search market would be a good thing? Think before you answer, there may be questions after! :)
Maybe you should look at those OS stats again son. MS still holds a dominant position. But they have been losing ground. And I never mentioned Google. You did.
It's amazing that Google just isn't innovating at all. Their search experience is 10 years old and folks like Ask who tried to pusht eh envelope with more relevance for some reason just didn't make it.
If Google keeps it up it's gonna go the way of GM some day. There's nothing keeping me using it and users are fickle/trendy.
Are you suggesting the wheels used on a car today resemble the wheels used by cavemen? So much science and technology has gone into improving them -- off the top of my head I can think of stuff like vulcanization of rubber, the different chemicals that must go into making the tire with the best grip and strenght, the concept of steel radials (a steel belt inside the rubber to add strength to it), run-flats, steel wheels followed by alloy wheels, wheel balancing down to the milligram, and so on and so forth. What if two centuries ago everybody just threw their hands up and said "oh, it's just a wheel -- let's not improve what's not broken"???
In other words -- you can't imagine what the future of search might look like. That's okay because that's not your job. But that doesn't mean that other people don't have vision and ideas that they would like to realize in this space.
Two easy examples where Bing clearly improves on Google:
1. The previews on the right (move your mouse cursor to the right column of the search results) -- usually very relevant information in it, often stuff that will save you a click/page-load or more by getting you directly to the part of the site you needed.
2. Travel search. For example, do a search on "flights from detroit to miami". Check out the fare prediction, data on key price points in the last 30 days, etc. Click on the fare prediction and drill down on your exact dates. Note how even low cost carriers prices are included. Huge time saver.
Competition in this space is nothing but good for us. Why would you want to pass on that benefit just because you don't like MS?
i also used live search. the accelerators are very handy. find an address or person, and you can map it or so a search on that term immediately with 2 clicks.
there is no actual reason keeping people using google. that could change rapidly
The biggest problem with the Bing Ads were they are confusing. I watched them and it seems like they are focused on convincing people that they are unhappy with search and that Bing is better.
I could be wrong and I'm actually anxious to see, but I think this is another failed attempt by Microsoft to break into this market.
It's going to take a lot to pull me away from google, but I did install bing into Firefox's search providers list...
I can search for the games I want to play, I can search for troubleshooting guidelines when I help my friends to fix their computer. Sometimes I cannot search for what I expect - But I couldn't get what I expect from Google too, so there were problems with my keywords.
However, I strongly recommend Microsoft to make ALL search options available to ALL countries. Last time I have checked HK and US version of Bing, HK version is missing the video searching.
Yesterday, I logged to my company's VPN (which is in the US) and the results were amazing and incredible different.
If I had the option, I would test drive Bing for a while, but seems they are afraid to open the valve to all the traffic.
As for the comment that Google's complacent... I don't think so... It's just a matter of not touching the Cash Cow, since it works. Look what happened at Microsoft when they touched Windows. Vista appeared, and people rallied for XP to return, and it did, albeit inside a virtual machine in Windows 7. Reminds me of the classic Coca-Cola vs. New Coke debate. Who won? Who cares, now we have choice... although abroad we only get plain old New Coke... guess nobody won that battle.
I wonder if we'll see another class action suit of Ms abusing it's monopoly yet again !
either way Bing is impressive IMO , but no way ccan it compete with either google or yahoo !
The only thing I had to do with Bing though was remove the photo on the main page. I found that it hid the search box a bit too much. But Bing does let you remove it (see the help for Bing on how).
Think about when you first started your site. How long did it take Google to index it? Probably not instantly or even weeks. But even then, Google was already indexing most of the web, so it doesn't take that much in resources to index your site. However, everything on the web is new to Bing. Everything. That's why it takes time to crawl through all the information and index it.
I tried finding my U.S. office on the Birds Eye view... and it failed, when I gave the complete address, separated by commas. I tried taking all the data, one by one and it still failed. Finally, I decided to separate the data by spaces, and "voila!" birds eye view.
Lets hope Microsoft can deliver a better version of Hotmail, Office Live and even Spaces, since all of them still suck good compared with Gmail, Google Docs and Facebook, which reminds me of one thing. In this online area, Microsoft's just one of the boys, and if it beats Google, then comes Facebook, then comes Tweeter, then comes LinkedIn, etc etc.
Tough job for Ray Ozzie, to excel (pun intended) when you're no longer the owner of the platform (Windows) but just another duck on the pond (the Web).
- by sanjayb June 11, 2009 10:02 AM PDT
- Bing has got some nice eye candy but I don't see myself switching from Google.
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