Bing Cuts Itself a 10% Slice of the Search Pie

By Jane McEntegart
published

Bing has been gaining in popularity since it launched just before the summer and while Microsoft's share of the search market has slowly been creeping upward, it's finally hit a milestone of 10 percent.

CNet News cites a Nielson report released Monday that puts 10 percent of the search market in the bucket marked Bing. Of course, Google is still the king of the castle with 64 percent (an increase of 2.6 percent over July) and Yahoo! comes second with 16 percent (a decrease of 4.2 percent). However, Bing searches for August clocked in with 1.1 billion for the month of August, an increase of 22.1 percent over July, giving Microsoft a 10.7 percent share of the search market.

CNet reports that similar studies from the likes of ComScore also show an increase in Bing searches. Microsoft this week launched visual search for Bing, which shows users their search results in the form of a deck of pictures as opposed to just a page of hyperlinks.

Click here to see the full results of the Nielson report.

Jane McEntegart
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cruiseoveride
    Just proves 10% of Internet users use the default search on IE.
    Reply
  • cruiseoveride
    Just proves 10% of Internet users can't be bothered to change or oblivious to anything but the the default search on IE.
    Reply
  • arson94
    Don't be so naive... Many people, as do I, use Bing because they like it better. Sure, some poeple use Bing because they're lazy or incompetent. But the same goes for Google users. Many google users use it because there friends recommended it, not because they like it better than the competition or have even tried the competition.
    Reply
  • sot010174
    I think that microsoft got an eraser, removed "live search" from the paper, and typed B-I-N-G. And that was that. Bing's accuracy is miles behind Google.

    10% market share? What live did have then? I mean, all Windows PCs that got Ie7 installed came with Live search as default search engine.

    my 2 cents.
    Reply
  • Bing is a nice try to fight the monopoly of Google,
    Though the company behind bing is as a monopolist as google is, so,
    I find Google does a good job, and I have no complaints!
    They require absolutely zero on money, searches are fairly accurate, and my page is not bloated with ads.

    I find absolutely no reason to go over to Bling.
    I tried it, and probably that's where they get their 10%, that many want to see.
    But my bet is before next month, most users will return to google, unless like mentioned above, they absolutely don't know how to change their default search engine!
    Reply
  • jojesa
    Only 10%, even thought Bing is added "by default" when you install or upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.
    By the way, think that 8% of that might be searching for pornography, since Bing's has "excellent" video search capabilities.
    Reply
  • M3d
    ^Did not know that. Thanks! :)
    Reply
  • danish_2828
    Bing is not added by default when you upgrade to IE8. IE8 install ask you if you would like to change from your current default search provider. A person is then directed to a webpage to change their default. If a person was using Google and would like to change to Bing they would be able to so at this point. It's very common for certain store bought computers, such as Dells, to come with Google search bar which actually make Google the default search provider. The only reason I think Yahoo is as high as it is because of all the software that tries to install yahoo toolbar without really asking such as: Yahoo Messenger, and CCCleaner. We're even victims of the Google toolbar being slipstreamed of another install.

    Even if IE8 install makes the default Bing, something else being installed after would be bound to make it either yahoo or google without little warning. Just like the infamous FOH (Fold at Home)that's slipstreamed into the AMD Catalyst install.
    Reply
  • p05esto
    BING is great, I havn't used Google in weeks. Google pisses me off in the same way "Apple" does as a company. One of these "it's so cool and hip to be us, wow we're great and Microsoft sucks..." I'd bet my business technology on MS products over Apple or Google any day of the week. I don't want flavor of the day.
    Reply
  • Herbert_HA
    I've been trying it and so far I don't like it. Failed to give good search results for obvious questions, like when I searched for the Lord of the Rings Online (Lotro) or Free Freehand. I did both searches with Google and the correct pages where the first ones to appear.
    I'm still gonna use it for some time to be sure, but I guess I'm not going to leave Google.
    Reply