Microsoft posts modest search gains with Bing

July 1, 2009

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New search engine Bing helped Microsoft increase its share of the search market in the United States in June but, still lags behind Yahoo! and Google, a Web analytics firm reported Wednesday.

New search engine Bing helped Microsoft increase its share of the search market in the United States in June but, still lags behind Yahoo! and Google, a Web analytics firm reported Wednesday.

StatCounter said Microsoft carved out an 8.23 percent share of the US search market in June, up from 7.21 percent in April and 7.81 percent in May.

Yahoo!'s share of the search market was 11.04 percent in June, up from 10.99 percent in May but down from 11.27 percent in April.

Google continued to dominate the search market with a 78.48 percent share in June, down slightly from 78.72 percent in May and 79.07 percent in April.

"At first sight, a one percent increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing, but the underlying trend appears positive," said StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen.

"Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date," Cullen said in a statement.

StatCounter said that globally, Microsoft increased its search market share from 3.08 percent in April to 3.30 percent in June.

Yahoo! fell from 5.48 percent in April to 5.15 percent in June while Google remained steady at 89.80 percent.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer earlier this month downplayed expectations for the success of Bing, but said the company was committed to challenge Google over the long-term.

The initial response to Bing has been "very good" Ballmer said, but it will not displace Google anytime soon.

"I don't want to overset expectations. We're going to have to be tenacious and keep up the pace of innovation over a long period of time," Ballmer told an economic summit in Detroit, Michigan.

Bing replaces MSN Live Search, which has languished in a distant third place behind market-leading Google and second-place Yahoo!

(c) 2009 AFP

• superhuman - Jul 02, 2009
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  "Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date,

  
  
  "if not spectacular"? LOL! The only spectacular thing is the amount of money that goes down the bing drain.
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• Arn - Jul 02, 2009
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  There goes the microsoft-whipping again. Want to be cool online? Bash Microsoft, Bill Gates, Ballmer, and all MS products. The more you talk against Microsoft, the cooler you get to become. Pathetic.
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• superhuman - Jul 02, 2009
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  There goes the microsoft-whipping again. Want to be cool online? Bash Microsoft, Bill Gates, Ballmer, and all MS products. The more you talk against Microsoft, the cooler you get to become. Pathetic.

  
  So the truth becomes pathetic when it's widely known and shared? Interesting perspective, are you on the $60 million bing advertising pie? Or just genuinely think micro$oft is doing a great job and 1% gain at the cost of billions of dollars is a spectacular result?
  
  And before you claim there's no way they can be spending billions on Ballmer's inferiority complex see here:
  http://blog.seatt...1648.asp
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