Bing Users' Click-Through Rate 55% Higher Than Google Users'

An anonymous reader writes "Techcrunch is running a story that shows some pretty significant differences in the clicking habits of users of Yahoo, Google, and Bing. As it turns out, folks who arrive at websites via Bing are 55% more likely to click on an ad than if they arrived from Google (data based on the Chitika network). Essentially, people who use Bing are far more susceptible to advertising. Bing has acquired a decent market share in such a short time, but could it just be that they've reaped the low hanging fruit of those particularly persuaded by advertising? When their huge marketing campaign winds down, what kind of staying power will it have?"

Comments

What a surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

Who would have thought that people who would switch to an inferior search engine based on an aggressive marketing campaign would be more susceptible to advertising?

Re:What a surprise

[nycguy]

What exactly makes Bing an inferior search engine? I generally use Google, but I've found, for example, in tracking down some old friends from high school and college that I was able to find them on Bing whereas I was not on Google or Yahoo. Also, I like Bing's video search better because the video "thumbnails" start to play when you mouse over them, which makes it easier to find what you're looking for. I know this article gives you a chance to take your daily shit on Microsoft, but maybe when you're done with your two minutes hate you might want to consider that Google hasn't done much to improve their core product lately so a little competition might not be a bad thing.

Re:What a surprise

[causality]

The use of Bing COULD be boosted by IE 8 choosing that by default. How many users install software defaults?

As for clicking on ads, there are lots of potential reasons, including the ones mentioned here. But of course, since it's a "decision engine" people are more likely to follow that decision. ;-)

I would be very surprised if there were not a strong correlation between users who don't customize their settings and users who more frequently respond to advertising the way that the advertisers want them to.

That's because defaults are intended to be applied to millions of users and therefore cannot be ideal for all users or even very many of them. At least, I'll say that the number of people who use all-default settings is far greater than the number of users for whom this is ideal. The greater the number of options which can be customized, the more true this is. Someone who has an "ideal" in mind for how their setup should be and is willing to undergo at least some minor effort to arrange it is more likely to be a more independent thinker, reducing the susceptibility to external suggestion such as advertising.

Re:What a surprise

[mysidia]

There's a pandemic of Microsoft Hating syndrome, as discovered by Linus Torvalds.

Re:What a surprise

[HiThere]

I don't have any idea whether the current version of Bing is grossly inferior to Google. And I'm not likely to find out.

To put it bluntly, I wouldn't trust MS to deliver an honest answer. Even if they do at first to try to build a reputation, in my eyes they already HAVE a reputation. Since this web site is controlled by MS, I would expect it to use any access made to it in unethical ways. Probably not quite so blatant as downloading a keylogger, but of that ilk.

Note that this doesn't mean that I expect that they are acting that way now, though it wouldn't surprise me. But I certainly don't expect them to give warnings before they DO start.

Re:What a surprise

[morghanphoenix]

Something just bothers me about the "decision engine" thing. I'd like to think people are smart enough to make their own decisions and not follow whatever their search engine tells them to do, but for some reason I doubt that is the case. I think the major reason people click on more adds when using Bing is that those of us who Google already have some idea of what we are looking for, those of us who use Bing are looking for someone or something to make those choices for us. As for me, even if Bing was the best search engine ever invented, it gives me a bloody headache to look at it.

Re:What a surprise

[stuboogie]

I conducted the same search on Google and Bing and you are correct that Google clearly returns the FEMA National Level Exercise results first. While Bing did not return reference to FEMA as the first result.

However, what if someone used that same search string to find info about:

New Living Expo
National Latin Exam
Nursing Licensing Examination

Bing returned links to those and a few other minor uses of the acronym on the first page. Google, however, only returned results for the Nursing Licensing Examination.
So, I guess you declared Google the clear winner because somehow they magically knew you wanted info about FEMA and not one of the other uses of that acronym. Someone searching for the National Latin Exam may disagree with you since it doesn't show up on Google until half way down the third page.

While I like the fact that Bing returns more relevant options initially, what would be nice is if Bing then allowed you to select the result that most represents the topic you are actually looking for and then narrow the results to only include those.

Of course, you could just be more specific with your search terms instead of relying on a computer to interpret the true meaning of an acronym you used.

Re:What a surprise

[causality]

Yes you can: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030514035516436 It's just Mac & Linux users can, on occasion, manage to do something without a GUI. I'm not saying all Windows users can't, but that huge slice of market share Windows users brag about all the time includes a lot of really dumb people.

I don't think those users are merely dumb. A truly dumb person can't help it, and so I wouldn't fault them for that any more than I would blame a paraplegic for being unable to walk. What I do blame those "dumb users" for is something I call willful helplessness. That's when the information is out there, freely available, the person in question is literate and has 'Net access, and refuses to educate themselves even for simple configuration issues. It wouldn't be so bad except that these same people often complain that they don't get the results they want, and/or they think it's a terribly unreasonable thing to suggest that they can help themselves, almost like it's some kind of insult. Usually that's followed by something like "I'm not a computer expert" as though changing basic settings makes one an "expert."

Many such users are on Windows. There could probably be debates about whether that's because Windows inherently suits them or if it's merely because that's what the computer came with and this kind of user is quite unlikely to evaluate other options since that would require the learning that they so resent. The easiest way to identify such folks is that they can use the same machine for years and never know much more about it than when they started. That's what amazes me. It seems like it would take a lot more work to make sure you don't pick up some knowledge here and there that would accumulate over the years, but I suppose you could say that they are true to their passive mentality.

Re:What a surprise

[causality]

There's a pandemic of Microsoft Hating syndrome, as discovered by Linus Torvalds.

"Syndrome" sounds like a disease. When you really do engage in anticompetitive, manipulative, underhanded practices, have been convicted in multiple nations of doing so in an illegal fashion, have (in my opinion) resorted to bribery to compromise independent standards bodies, have made Webmasters everywhere bear additional costs because you refuse to fully adhere to open standards, and have abused the meaning of "updates to the OS" to install phone-home software (WGA), perhaps it's understandable that many people won't like you? Just maybe that's not a "syndrome" but a predictable outcome?

Mr. Torvalds made a case for why it is sometimes expedient to work with a company that is important in its industry. He has not made the case that their tactics should be celebrated or that it's unreasonable to dislike them. The only way to make that case is to prove that everyone should enjoy the ill effects of abusive practices and that any and all pushback against them is wrong and unfounded. That would not be the argument of a sane person.

Re:What a surprise

[Kalriath]

So it couldn't possibly be because on a Microsoft search engine, the terms people search for are more Microsoft-centric, thereby resulting in a biased pool of suggestions?

It couldn't possibly be because most people with a genuine interest in Linux are Microsoft-hating sheep who wouldn't dare go near a Microsoft search engine, resulting in a dearth of Linux-but-not-Microsoft related search terms?

Please.

Re:What a surprise

[countertrolling]

...willful helplessness...

I think the "correct" term is learned helplessness, and it is not entirely a matter of free will as much as it is of conditioning. And it really shows itself in our dealings with authority and why more people don't rebel against it.

Re:What a surprise

[TheRaven64]

Wait, you're seriously suggesting the fact that you can hand-edit the binary to change a hard-coded constant string (and have it reset every time you update the binary) counts as the ability to change it? By that token, I can run Linux executables on OS X; I just need to edit the kernel binary to add system call handlers for all of the Linux system calls...

Sort of a double edged sword...

[Utopia Tree]

to be able to say our users are sheep

The reason

[Jugalator]

It's because users of Microsoft services are more stupid than the general population. There, I said it!

Well,

[theorem4]

Would that click through rate include the ads for Cashback? If so, I might consider the results skewed.

S.O.P.

[meerling]

With anything that has been marketed/hyped, never rely on the initial numbers.
Ignore the first month of a search engine, and the first week of a new movie.
After the curious and easily manipulated are out of the way, you can get a real result.

Re:Something fishy about Bing

[larry bagina]

maybe Bing's previews cause the user to hit your site without leaving the bing page.

Re:Umm... cash back anyone?

[colganc]

If cashback is something they keep around for two years or more I consider it as part of the search engine. At two years or more it must be part of their business model.

Re:Obvious

[Sporkinum]

Combination of no adblockers on the default IE with the default Bing search page on most computers. Bing cashback, and the obfuscation of ads mixed in with real results. I'd say they are doing a good job of covering their bases.

Re:Umm... cash back anyone?

[ChronoFish]

Who said you can't beat free?

Bing l10n..

[Seth Kriticos]

I'm in a Germany and my browser language preference is set to English (because I prefer it).

Now most sites (including Google) manage to get my geo-location and annoy me with a German start page (ignoring my language preferences). (At least I could set my prefs. at google, but its bothering to do this for every site I visit).

Now visiting Bing gave me something unusual: a hybrid l10n. The controls were partly in English and the search suggestions (random stuff at the button of the screen) came in German. Searching for something gave only German results.

And there I thought it couldn't get worse than it is already.. but this irks the hell out of me.

ps. And the scaling of mostly everything was messed up too.. Way to go if you want to convince technical folks, Microsoft..

Re:Umm... cash back anyone?

[Etherized]

I hear you. I'll often find products using google or deal sites, then go through bing just for the cash back - it would be really silly if that sort of usage counted as a bing success story.

TFA doesn't specify whether this sort of usage is included in the comparison.

Slimy Submission Text

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the type of story summary used here that shows early signs of the disease Linus was talking about. What kind of lowlife asshole uses a phrase like:

reaped the low hanging fruit of those particularly persuaded by advertising

It's advertising, dickhead. If people like what is being advertised they will click the link, watch the commercial, and buy the product. Why is someone who investigates an advertisement deemed less intelligent? Does not fast forwarding through a commercial make you a moron? Does leafing through the Sunday morning circular make you a fool? Ohh, that's right, they are using a Microsoft service. Tee hee. So witty, so funny.

I used to really like Slashdot, but the quality of the submissions is really taking an ugly tone. Who do we blame? The people writing the submission? Or the person who allows it to be post. This isn't even a Kdawson story so we can't blame him. Slashdot doesn't seem to have any commitment to making sure summaries are well written and free from juvenile bias.

Re:Slimy Submission Text

[westlake]

I used to really like Slashdot, but the quality of the submissions is really taking an ugly tone. Who do we blame?

I think it comes down to a hard, bitter core of envy and frustration.

Windows runs everything of interest in FOSS. It offers the user an enormous, rock-solid back list of commercial software.

Freeware and shareware are still viable on the PC platform - think of the success of programs like SolSuite on Download.com.

Windows is the smorgasbord. The bazaar.

That's the only meaning of software freedom that will ever be intelligible to the user.

The geek will rant and rage over DRM - but to the consumer all it really means is that he can play protected media content over a super-fast HDMI link to his home theater audio system and HDTV.

Netflix catalogs 100,000 DVD titles, 2,000 in Blu-Ray. Why the hell am I downloading a mediocre DiVX rip over the P2P nets?

WalMart is a lost cause - one of many.

Not one Linux netbook to be had online or in their stores.

53 desktops eligible for a free upgrade to Win 7 - and laptops in proportion. Serious contenders for mass market sales - with hardware that is unquestionably up to the job.

Apple sells an upscale urban lifestyle. Microsoft, middle-class value. Linux remains a question mark.
   

TFA has a blatantly skewed perspective

[liquiddark]

The susceptibility of users is one possibility, of course, but so are
1) better product (see the comments regarding Cashback ads)
2) better placement
3) better advertising clients (ever seen an interesting google ad but hesitated to click because of the shady domain?)

Re:Umm... cash back anyone?

[Skreems]

Cashback isn't going anywhere. It's a permanent feature. The goal, of course, is that you don't go back to Google when they don't offer up a carrot, because you've found that the whole thing is worth using. As long as they keep paying out on Cashback, they'll have a set of people ready and waiting to notice when they actually fix the product as a whole. Not that I think that will happen anytime soon.

Is this data from Chitika audited?

[Helldesk Hound]

This data appears to be provided from one business only - Chitika, presumably from data that they gathered from their advertizing.

Has it been audited with a view to confirming that the click throughs are indeed actually happening?

Has that data been compared with data from all the many other advertizing businesses that spam websites via Search Engines?

To what extent is Chitika's advertizing only based on Microsoft Bing and not on the other search engines? :o)

It's the Bing Cash--AKA the MONEY!

[PatSand]

Folks-

Let's apply Occam's Razor here: They offer Bing Cash on selected web sites (especially eBay) that you click though to and buy from when you have signed up for Bing Cash (free, as in beer).

I'm not scared of using Bing and Bing Cash to get 2-8% back on my purchases (even if it takes up to 60 days). I use my other browsers to find out what I want to buy (amongst other things) and use Bing with Bing Cash to buy the item, if possible, and get some money back.

I don't use Bing for general searching or research, just when I am looking to buy something.

I guess this is where their big advertising budget is going towards. My wallet, for a change.

So I'm not surprised that their click-thru rate is higher, and probably their click-n-buy rate; but this will last as long as they have the Bing Cash program. Now if they looked at how much research was being done, I bet that is very low.