Bing Gaining Market Share Faster

sopssa sends along a TechCrunch report on comScore qSearch numbers indicating that Bing is currently gaining market share faster than ever before. "In December, Microsoft's search engine gained another 0.4 percent to capture 10.7 percent of US search queries. That makes five straight months of steady share gains for Bing since it launched — Bing's share is up 2.7 percent in total since May, 2009. Google gained only 0.2 percent to end the month with 65.7 percent market share. What is even more interesting is if you look at year-over-year query growth rates for each search engine. Bing's growth is actually accelerating. Its growth rate in query volume was 49.4 percent in December."

Comments

Of course

[smooth wombat]

This is what happens when you make your search engine the default one for your web browser as well as make it difficult for someone to add or change this option.

Duh!

Re:Of course

[Anonymous Coward]

Like Firefox, Opera and Chrome do with Google? It's not hard to change search engine in IE, btw

Re:Of course

[kjart]

It's actually pretty easy to change providers in IE - you just click on the drop down beside the search field and select 'Find more providers'. Brings up a page with numerous other search providers you can add (Google, ebay, etc). Also, I think if you go to google manually in IE, there is a prompt in the top right to switch (or at least there used to be - not sure if they killed this).

Also, if you were to apply the same logic, the marketshare gains by google would be non-trivial since they are the default homepage/provider in Firefox. Personally, while I do think the defaults do influence things, I also think you are overstating them slightly. Google's brand alone assures that a lot of non-savvy computer users will still go there despite defaults in their browser, simply because 'google' has become synonymous with 'search' to a large extent.

Re:Of course

[blanck]

Indeed, this may have more to do with an increase in adoption of Windows 7 than other factors.
I prefer Google for straight up search, but Bing is nice for some specialty searches, e.g. hotels with price comparisons.

Re:Of course

[Locke2005]

It also helps if you're willing to PAY people to use your search engine... Publisher's Clearing House sends me a daily email with a link to a Bing page, offering me a chance to win VALUABLE PRIZES by searching. What I've always said: "Anybody can generate $1 million in revenue, if they are given a $2 million marketing budget to do it with." Like our current job creation which is driven almost completely by government deficit spending, I'm not sure increasing search engine market share really counts if you are losing money on every search.

Re:Of course

[Kadin2048]

I did this a few weeks ago and Microsoft makes it intentionally difficult — first, most casual users don't even know that the "Find more providers" list is there. Second, it's not obviously clear that you'd use the "Find more providers" option to change providers; i.e. get rid of Bing completely and use Google instead, rather than add additional options to the menu. Third, if and when you do get to the Microsoft page of search providers, when I went there, Google wasn't even on the front page. It took a number of subsequent clicks to even find it, which seems totally inappropriate given Google's popularity.

This is 100% the usual Microsoft monopoly-leveraging SOP.

Re:Of course

[ByOhTek]

So, clicking the drop down next to the search bar in IE, and selecting 'manage search providers' or whatever it is, is more difficult than clicking the drop down next to the search bar in FireFox and selecting 'Manage Search Engines'.

Funny, their methods seem identical except for Firefox has its drop down on the left, MS is on the right, and there's a bit of synonymous noun/verb switching.

Re:Of course

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Oh, come on. The first time you run IE8 it prompts you to pick a search provider or to use the default of Bing- and it keeps prompting every time you launch until you make a choice or tell it to go away. It lists Google right there, no need to search for more providers. It really can't be made any easier than that.

For an existing install, I can't say as I haven't tried it. But it seems odd to me that the first run would have data that a subsequent run would not.

Re:Of course

[Nerdfest]

Have a look at Google Squared for those searches ... it's pretty cool, although you need to add a price column yourself.

Re:Of course

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

Come on. Just admit you dont like microsoft. It is very easy to change the default search engine in IE and Firefox. BTW Firefox comes default with google...

If firefox can default to google, IE can default to bing.

Both can be changed. There is little difference, just microsoft hate.

Re:Of course

[PaladinAlpha]

Yes, I've always found it difficult to click the picture of google with the drop-down arrow and select another search provider from the many options present. And even worse is when I want to add another one, like MS's latest cash cow, requiring me to then click "Manage search engines..." and then "Get more search engines". Whole thing is counter-intuitive, I tell ya.

On the gains, didn't something happen recently to lock a lot of smartphones into Bing? Can't remember the article.

Re:Of course

[jhoegl]

Like Firefox, Opera and Chrome do with Google? It's not hard to change search engine in IE, btw

Hey....

Shut up.

Re:Of course

[dougisfunny]

a bunch of Verizon blackberrys

Re:Of course

[Gadget_Guy]

I was surprised to find a google search returned no hits from M$ itself, but when I switched to bing, it worked. It seems that M$ is blocking google from searching it's site.

Really? I just copied the phrase from your post "Exchange Certificate on a winmo smartphone" into Google and the first result was a technet article at Microsoft. The best that Bing could do with the same phrase was some press release stuff about the phones (at least on the first page).

I know the results vary depending on your country and phase of the moon, but it seems a bit premature to suggest that Microsoft are blocking google when a million other test searches could easily prove that wrong.

Then after installing XP on another computer, and updating everything (since she wouldnt) I found that in the newest IE I couldnt use google as my search, the "easy" way of adding it was gone.

In other branches of this thread, everyone else has already mentioned the Find more providers option (which really doesn't seem that hard), but what "easy" way has been removed?

Re:Of course

[jittles]

Exactly. I suspect the increased search traffic is due to BCB, or Bing Cash Back if you're not into deals websites. Almost every single slickdeal post in the month of December had BCB as part of their slick prices. I used it myself for several purchases I was planning on making anyway.

Basically when I wanted to get 20% cash back on a purchase at Walmart I went to bing and searched "Walmart Bluray" and it returned an ad offering cash back at Walmart.

Re:Of course

[XxtraLarGe]

So, clicking the drop down next to the search bar in IE, and selecting 'manage search providers' or whatever it is, is more difficult than clicking the drop down next to the search bar in FireFox and selecting 'Manage Search Engines'.

I'm not going to say that it's more difficult, but rather it's less obvious. People who download & install FF will tend to be more tech savvy than those who use IE because that's what came with their computer. One nice thing that FF does is provide a list of icons for some more common search engines, whereas IE gives you live search or "Find more providers...", and it is a separate drop-down control on a button next to, not within the search window.

I think by and large it's new Windows 7 computer sales with IE 8 that's driving Bing's growth, not that people are saying "Bing is a superior search engine, I think I will use that instead." If you're Joe Sixpack who doesn't know much about computers, you don't care about your web browser or search engine, you just want to be able to surf the web. You buy a new PC, and now instead of typing in your search box, you get Bing search results instead of Google.

Re:Of course

[prestomation]

Two(?) words:
Windows 7

Re:Of course

[Androclese]

I did the "Mom Test"; it has been pretty reliable for testing tech things.

Here is the exact conversation:
me : 'Mom, I want you to change your IE search engine from Bing to Google.'
Mom: 'Why? What's the difference?'
me : 'Google is better.'
Mom: 'Nah, it doesn't matter to me, I just type what I want in there and the results show'
me : 'Can you at least try?'
Mom: 'Fine, where do I do it?'
me : '(start explaining)'
Mom: 'No, no, no, forget it, that's too complicated. Stop with the geek talk; I'm still confused on how Foxfire (sic) can use the same Internet as Windows... how do you expect me to figure this out?'
me : ...

Re:Of course

[AnotherUsername]

Tools->Internet Options->Type in the new home page in the big box.

You can even make tabbed homepages, if that's your thing.

Man, that was hard.

Re:Of course

[shutdown -p now]

It still doesn't explain anything, because IE6 also uses Bing as default search out of the box. Well, technically, it uses Live, but that redirects all search queries to Bing now.

Re:Of course

[adbge]

The OP isn't trying to bash Microsoft or IE for having bing as the default search engine, but is instead pointing out that if you release a new search engine, and then make it the default in a large percent of Internet browsers, of course it will gain ground quickly. This further implies that Bing is gaining market share not on merit, but rather because of its default behavior.

Re:Of course

[adbge]

I think it would be safe to say that his mother understands that two vehicles can operate on the same road.

But you knew that, didn't you?

Re:Of course

[h4rm0ny]

You need to upgrade to a smarter mother. Mine's fine with that.

Re:Of course

[zehaeva]

As an avid blackberry user and enthusiast on Verizon, in an office full of blackberry addicts, I will tell you you are dead wrong sir.

I can not change the default search provider on my Storm 2, I have tried.

I did not install it either. When I purchased the Storm 2 Google was the default search engine, literally over night it was changed, with out my permission and against my wishes. The same happened to every single blackberry in my office.

The only option I have is to type google into my blackberry's browser to use it. That is hardly an option at all.

Also I did not want the Bing application installed to my blackberry and yet it was done for me over the air. I have not been able to uninstall it either. It does not show up in the applications in the options at all.

What option is this?

~Zehaeva

Re:Of course

[recoiledsnake]

I stop arguing with someone's post once I see a 'M$'. It's obvious that they're either 12, a zealot, or a karma whore making up stuff that moderators want to hear. (It worked well here, the GP is at +4 interesting right now).

Re:Of course

[God_TM]

Unfortunately, you're trying to push your agenda without listening to the person with the 'problem'. You even quoted her: "Why? What's the difference? I just type what I want in there and the results show". So you want to take a system that works fine for your mother, and have her conform to the way you do things? Why? It's better? Would your mom *really* notice a difference in the results? I don't see a problem here, other than fanboyism.

Re:Of course

[adiposity]

Google is on the front page (for now), but for about a year it wasn't on the front page of:

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/searchproviders

Ask.com, WikiPedia and ESPN were beating it out, and you had to scroll down the second page about halfway to find it. I'm glad to see it is showing up on the front page.

Honestly, I can't blame them for not wanting to help you find google, but any browser these days has to be able to add a google search engine in less than 2 clicks or it's very annoying for most people.

-Dan

yes!

[nomadic]

Go Microsoft!!!

Sure...

[TrippTDF]

When you pay off everyone and their brother to default to your service, you'll pick up a little momentum...

Re:Sure...

[Lunix Nutcase]

You mean like with Google and Firefox?

Re:Sure...

[Idiomatick]

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/11/24/0112201

Might be interesting if you haven't read it.

Bing is pretty good

[DogDude]

Bing is actually pretty darn good. They don't have the countless integrated features that Google has, but for good, solid search results, in some cases, Bing returns better results than Google. Where I work, people there have set about half of the desktops' home pages to Bing, with the other half being Google.

Re:Bing is pretty good

[johnlcallaway]

Bing is annoying as hell, and I will never use it on purpose. There are way too many websites that seem to create hover points for every other word in an article, so Bing pops up all the time. Which could also account for their 'increased search results' .. people accidentally getting bing results because of hover points in web pages.

Re:Bing is pretty good

[adbge]

I find Bing horribly annoying simply because I anticipate certain results when I enter a phrase into Google, but Bing returns results that I don't want -- simply because I'm so used to what I would get if I Googled it instead.

I am unable to actually critique Bing as a search engine because I'm constantly thrown off by the search results. I'm not sure if Bing simply has an inferior search algorithm, or if it's simply myself equating different with bad.

Market Variety

[Thunderstruck]

While we should probably be happy to see more than one viable candidate for the search engine market, none seem to address privacy very well. Both Bing/Yahoo and Google are quite happy to tell you that they'll track user activity and use it to make a profit. Are there any viable alternatives left with more favorable privacy policies?

Re:Market Variety

[sopssa]

Not alternatives, but Scroogle hides your searches among thousands of others (and removes Google's click-tracking javascripts and so on).

Look, it's actually not bad

[sc7]

I run all OSes, Linux, Mac, Windows, and I set Bing as my default browser where ever I can. I can accept when Microsoft does something well (I also have a Zune HD). Bing is a great search engine, I find for specific queries, especially academic searches, it provides more accurate, as well as seperated results. Go ahead, type in "Honda Civic", and watch how it divides it based on more specific topics related to the car. The mighty Google has stagnated on its search engine like MS did on IE6 for too long, I'm glad to see some competition, and glad to see Microsoft trying again (as they are with IE8/9 and Windows 7).

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[superstick58]

I haven't used the basic search much, but I've been much happier with the maps tool. I used to use google maps, but bing has been much more accurate and up-to-date with maps for some locations. I'm tired of searching for an address I know exists, but get no results because it was built in the last 2 years. So bing increases their market share not just with search, but with their other services as well.

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[clampolo]

Yeah, it's not bad. My main gripe with it, is having to wait for the download of their daily picture. It makes using Bing pretty sluggish as opposed to google which pops up very quickly thanks to the minimalistic page.

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[BuckaBooBob]

Setting Bing as your default browser?

Hmm.. Are you for real? Bing is a search engine... Firefox/IE/Opera/Safari ect are browsers..

So before your first sentence is complete I have deducted that you have nothing of value to say what so ever since you seem to be unable to differentiate between a browser and a search engine.

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[NeutronCowboy]

Just for fun, I tried Honda Civic as a search. Actually, Bing sucks. Where the results differ, Bing has either a comparison between Civic and Integra windshields, or an ungodly list of used car sites. The one bonus item: it actually has sites that show the manuals for various Honda/Acura cars. Here's the deal though: if I type in "Honda Civic", I want information about the car, not about a manual for it, and I don't want to buy one. Especially not a used one. Google on the other hand presents me with sites that have information about the car - edmunds review, price comparisons, guide sites, etc. Stuff that will help me know more about the car.

If I want specific topics, I'll search for them, thank you very much.

I found similar issues with the maps site: directions are easier to manipulate in Google, and Google lets me search by public transit, or by walking. One good feature in Bing: get directions based on traffic. Google does something similar with "avoid highways", but it's not the same thing.

You are right, Google hasn't evolved much in its core business of search - but that's good, because there isn't much that can happen, until the semantic web (ha!) comes along. Bing tries to pretend it can do semantics, but it really can't. It's just faking it fairly badly. Oh, and final gripe: the stuff it does to wikipedia pages is nasty, and on its own a reason to avoid it like a plague. Yes, I don't have to use the readability feature, but I can't turn off the side bar where that option sits. If I go to a site, I either run my own scripts, or I want to see the page as the site creators intended. Not what MS thinks would be a good version.

In tl;dr format: Google gets out of my way. Bing is and stays in my face. Google wins.

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[smooth wombat]

And even more so, who actually types in www.bing.com or www.google.com to do a search,

If I had to hazard a guess, I suspect upwards of 93% of people, including me, still type in those addresses.

Why you ask? Force of habit, don't want the extra space of the search box taking up room, don't know that you can usually do a search from the address bar, don't care about the fancy way of doing things, don't have ADD and think they need to shave .29 seconds off their ability to do a search.

Shall I go on?

Re:Look, it's actually not bad

[AdmiralWeirdbeard]

This seems to me to be the key issue here: do you know how to search for what you want, or do you not? Do you want a decision engine or a search engine? I'm actually sort of surprised that more hasnt been made of the 'decision engine' business. Microsoft seems pretty up front about their 'we're making this search engine for people who either dont know how or are too lazy to properly seek out the information they want' strategy. And in a way, i actually support this. I was back home over christmas, helpin dad with some internets, and watching him fail to use google properly was really quite painful. he should be using bing. However, I, too, will continue using the search engine that both works and respects my intelligence.

Easy to do

[Smidge204]

Gaining market share for Bing is easy when you:

1) Already have the market for browsers (IE)

2) Make Bing the default search for said browsers

3) Direct all search traffic from all sites even remotely Microsoft affiliated through Bing

So what we would expect is everyone who just uses whatever is in front of them to start using Bing, because that's what Microsoft is putting in front of them.
=Smidge=

Re:Easy to do

[Thornkin]

Wasn't all that being done for Live Search too though? And that market share was way below Bing's and dropping. It's something more than just those 3 items.

Re:Easy to do

[Thaelon]

All Verizon blackberry storms now default (unchangably) to Bing. I'm sure that helps.

Stupid reporting

[Anonymusing]

In other news, my 1-year-old child has gained massive weight and height, while I, unfortunately, have not gotten even a millimeter taller.

Google is the established leader, with a massive market share that is unlikely to grow much further. Bing is the new kid on the block, starting at zero. Of course Bing is going to grow. There is nothing else for it to do. Even if it's lousy, it is impossible for it to not gain share. This is like comparing the Zune marketshare with the iPod.

Strange..

[Anonymous Coward]

i look after quite a few sites in the UK and Bing is nowhere, less than 1% for most of them

Strange..

[msimm]

Strange right! An advertisement about the growth of Bing trumpeting the growth of Bing! And on an unrelated note, can we stop slashvertising Microsoft shit?

Good

[DesScorp]

Google needs the competition at this point. Google search has become the Windows of search engines.

Re:Good

[PaulMeigh]

Agreed. Internet search is too important to be so dominated by a single corporation. Would love to see someone else mount a viable challenge to Google, but if it has to be MS for now, so be it.

Do you YAHOO!?

[Sebilrazen]

Apparently the answer is a resounding "NO."

How much would you pay for it?

[grahamsz]

Obviously the costs of operating a search engine are pretty significant and the market for people who'd pay for privacy is quite small. I suspect it'd need to be in the $20-50/month range, and i think that would deter a lot of people.

Little in life is free, and businesses that run on millions of dollars of hardware and fast internet connections are going to need to finance that.

In any event, if i'm going to have to deal with ads online then i'd PREFER that they were tailored to things i'm interested in.

Meanwhile, on the Internet

[RazZziel]

Random websites are being mysteriously slaughtered.

Contradicting numbers

[trazan]

This completely contradicts two other reports from the last few days, which has Bing losing market share in December.

http://searchengineland.com/nielsen-yahoo-bing-down-google-up-in-december-33464

http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/search-enginedec2009/

And another thing

[Weaselmancer]

MSDN is now powered by Bing too. So every windows programmer in the world is now making Bing queries by default. That's got to boost things a bit.

Re:And another thing

[Digero]

The chart in TFA is tracking search volume of "Microsoft Sites". The MSDN search has always been through Microsoft (Bing or not), so the switch to Bing on MSDN shouldn't affect the search volume through Microsoft sites, assuming the same volume of searches are going through search bar on MSDN. That said, I personally used to use google with "site:msdn.microsoft.com" before MSDN switched to Bing, so in that way, the switch to Bing on MSDN at least brought in a few more searches by me.

Re:And another thing

[shutdown -p now]

Who doesn't use Google to search MSDN? I haven't tried MSDN's own search recently, but at least it used to be utter shit. Slow and bad results. You search for an API function, it turns up the Windows CE version near the top, with the normal one maybe buried software. Fucking useless.

I'm not sure what engine it was using before. Perhaps it was MSN/Live Search, actually, as that was also rather infamous for poor search results.

Now that it uses Bing as a backend, it actually works fine. For example, searching for CreateWindow gets the Win32 function on top, then the WinCE one, then a bunch of other links that are quite relevant (WM_CREATE, a sample application etc). It also has a decent presentation of search results with no information overload - just a very simplistic link listing, and no ads etc.

Once again a misleading story about Bing

[pdboddy]

That total you see in the image in the article is for Microsoft Sites. This number includes searches from ALL of Microsoft's search boxes: Bing, Live, microsoft.com, etc etc.

If you look at the Nielsen report here: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/nielsen-reports-december-u-s-search-rankings/

You'll see that they list Microsofts search sites as "MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search", which is a bit more explanatory I would say.

And if you check Hitwise, where they list searches BY domain name, www.bing.com LOST 4%. (http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/search-enginedec2009/)

But Google didn't lose - it gained!

[twoallbeefpatties]

You know, when I look at the graph in TFA the Search Share for Google increased just as much as Bing did! In Dec-08, MS sites were at 8.3%, up to 10.7% in Dec-09. During that same timespan, Google went from 63.5% to 65.7%.

And in that timespan, Yahoo dropped from 20.5% to 17.3%. AOL also dropped from 3.8% to 2.6%. Guess what - MSN isn't stealing Google's shares yet. It's stealing from Google's competitors.

Isn't the real issue the base number?

[Suki I]

The report is "Bing Gains Market Share Faster" It is all the way up to 10.7% now. Fine. Google has 65.7%. You can show HUGE increases in your rate of market gain when hardly anybody is looking at you and then a few more look at you. The same number of eyeballs for Google is a small increase. Am I wrong, or did someone cherry pick the most appealing metric for Bing to write a story about?

Let's get one thing straight

[XB-70]

Bing wasn't 'Launched' it was INSTALLED *. There's a huge difference.

*Yes, I realise that some people have actually switched to it - but I'm sure that 98% of Bing users upgraded IE or are turning on Win7 for the first time.

Re:For IE users, Bing lockin is assured

[spyrochaete]

IE keeps your previous default search engine when you upgrade it, actually.

Re:easy to cheat

[mindwhip]

Not to mention that Microsoft migrated their various separate search engines (support, msdn, KB, etc... ) onto Bing so if you need any kind of information from the Evil Ones you are using the evil search.

Bing as a name makes me giggle anyway... to most people living in Scotland a 'Bing' is a heap of slag or other waste materials left over from coal mining and is often a toxic hazard to be avoided...

"Find More Providers"

[westlake]

This is what happens when you make your search engine the default one for your web browser as well as make it difficult for someone to add or change this option.

The drop down menu in IE 8 Search will take you to this page:

Add-ons Gallery: Search Providers

Here's a sampling of the English language options. You have 25 languages to chose from:

Amazon
Google
Hulu
New Egg
New York Times
Wikipedia
Win 7 Comparability

Create your own Search Provider

Add your own search provider to your copy of Internet Explorer by following these steps:

1. Visit the desired search engine in another window or tab.
2. Use the search engine to search for TEST (all capital letters).
3. Paste the URL of the Search results page here

You can customize the name of your provider. You can select the character encoding, from about 50 or so choices. You can view the XML.