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Has Bing Already Overtaken Yahoo?

nk497 writes "Microsoft's newly revamped search tool Bing has already overtaken Yahoo in the US and globally, according to StatsCounter. The net traffic watcher said Bing has topped Yahoo 16.28% to 10.22% in the US, and 5.62% to 5.13% globally. Though the firm noted Bing's popularity may drop off after the excitement wears off, the firm also said: 'Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying that he wanted Microsoft to become the second biggest search engine within five years. Following the breakdown in talks to acquire Yahoo at a cost of $40 billion it looks as if he may have just achieved that with Bing much sooner and a lot cheaper than anticipated.' Google, of course, still leads by a considerable margin."

11 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Not so fast! Has bing bung? by peterdaly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not so fast. Same source indicates the bing has already fallen back down to (less than) live.com levels.

    TechCrunch: Bing was #2 for a day then Yahoo regained its place as Bing fell.

    "As Matt Cutts (who yes, works for Google) points out in the comments, StatCounter updates every few hours, so there is also data for today already. And itâ(TM)s more bad news for Bing. Itâ(TM)s now down to 5.65% in the U.S. â" yes, thatâ(TM)s less than what Live.com was at last month."

  2. StatCounter's Baidu Stats is Alarming by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm skeptical of this data--at least worldwide. When I click the gs.statcounter.com link and go to Statistic:Search Engine and Country/Region:Asia I see Baidu at an alarmingly low rate. Barely even recognizable. The CSV sheet shows it at zero until 03/05/2009 which is hilarious and then it bumps up to 1%. Yeah, I think they have some problems with their data collection methods or who is reporting this data anyhow. Maybe their software's only in English? I don't know but that data alarms me and I would take their stats in other realms lightly as that's a vote of no confidence from me--something is skewed horribly and I don't like it. They might be right about Yahoo! compared to Bing but this is certainly not reassuring.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:StatCounter's Baidu Stats is Alarming by aodhan · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm from StatCounter and I would just like to address your concern. The detection for baidu was added on the 5th March 2009 at 21.00 GMT. When a new detection is added it is noted on the visual graph (but not in the csv download).
      Also if you look at the stats just for China you can easily see Baidu's dominance there.

    2. Re:StatCounter's Baidu Stats is Alarming by aodhan · · Score: 5, Informative

      We talk about our methodology here.
      Our stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 4 billion pageviews per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites. From this sample we analyze the sources of the referring traffic to compile our search engine reports.

  3. Reminds me of Groundhog's Day by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dated your sister until you told me not to? BING! Needlenose Ned! BING!

    Man, I've seen that movie so many times.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  4. They are not idiots, stop with the snobbery by blahbooboo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I did a little experiment. I loaded up IE, hit the search button, typed something in, and ran the search. Whaddayaknow, Bing comes up with the search results. So every idiot that has the same Windows installed as the day they brought it home from Walmart with IE as the default browser and the little search button as their only gateway to the world is going to use Bing whether they know it or not. Apparently there are quite a few such idiots. Are we surprised?

    People like you are why IT people get a bad rap.

    Why is someone an "idiot" who does not care what search engine or browser they use? You are into (or do it professionally) IT, so this sort of thing is important to YOU. I bet in other fields, maybe for example sake investing, people could say "Wow, you're an idiot for not performing a split. Moron!"

    Fact is different things are important to different people. It doesn't make them an idiot.

    1. Re:They are not idiots, stop with the snobbery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He's not criticizing you for commenting, he's criticizing you for calling these people "idiots".

      Having different interests/priorities than you doesn't make someone an idiot.

  5. Re:Redirects by nschubach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tuesday. That's when all the patches come out. ;)

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  6. Does "IT Pro" run paid ads as articles? by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some of the articles in "IT Pro" magazine seem to me to be ads. Here are other articles:

    Can Microsoft make a success out of Silverlight? Quote: "... Microsoft's Silverlight weighs in at just a four-megabyte download, and apparently takes just 10 seconds to install." Another quote: "So how has Silverlight fared, and can it really topple Flash?" Silverlight is far, far behind Flash.

    Can Google or Microsoft get any bigger? Quote: "... Google, along with Microsoft, is so large and so dominant in its sectors, that both firms are hitting a point where their potential for profitable growth is limited." Another quote: "Certainly the pair of them own their key markets, ..." Google and Microsoft are not a "pair".

    This is the article, published today, to which this Slashdot story linked: Has Bing already overtaken yahoo? But that article no longer exists, apparently. Now that link takes visitors to another article: UPDATED: Bing and Yahoo battle it out for second in search. Quote: "One stats firm has said Microsoft's Bing has already caught up to rival Yahoo, just a week after launch - but it's since slipped back to third." Bing hasn't "slipped back to third", Bing has dived in the ratings, and is now far behind Yahoo.

  7. Re:Redirects by T+Murphy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At work on Friday I mistyped a URL and it brought me to Bing. I didn't know what it was and assumed it was a re-routed parked domain or something - I didn't bother looking at it since I didn't recognize it. So my first impression of the site, thanks to the redirect, was that it was an annoying ad site.

  8. Re:It's the apps stupid! by noidentity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Agreed; Google is getting more on my nerves every day, partly because it doesn't do as told. I search for "foo bar" and it shows pages without any mention of "bar". OK, so search for "+foo +bar", and get my hits. Then try searching for "generic.h" and it returns pages with the string "generic" (no .h). Even adding a + doesn't avoid this. And then it regularly "corrects" my "misspellings", causing the wrong search. Once I finally get it searching for what I asked it to, it puts lots of irrelevant hits first.