Bing Gains Modest Ground On Google, Yahoo In July

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp.'s souped-up Internet search engine gained a little more ground on industry leaders Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in July, according to data released late Monday.

Despite the progress, Microsoft's search engine still remains a distant third in the United States – the main reason that the world's largest software maker plans to team up with Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo next year.

By working together in online search, Microsoft and Yahoo are betting that they can pose a more serious threat to Google in the most lucrative part of the Internet advertising market.

Microsoft's search engine – renamed Bing as part of a June overhaul – ended July with a 8.9 percent share in the United States, up from 8.4 percent in the previous month, according to comScore Inc. Just before Bing's debut, Microsoft's search market share stood at 8 percent.

Google retained a commanding U.S. lead at 64.7 percent through July, down from 65 percent in June, comScore said. Yahoo's market share dipped to 19.3 percent in July from 19.6 percent in June.

Microsoft shares fell 44 cents, or 1.9 percent, to close Monday at $23.25. Google shares shed $15.11, or 3.3 percent, to finish at $444.89 while Yahoo shares closed at $14.56, down 48 cents, or 3.2 percent.

Bing attracted 29 million more search requests in July than it did in June, a 2.4 percent increase to 1.21 billion, comScore said.

The relatively modest gains haven't come cheaply for Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is spending $100 million to promote Bing, adding to the billions that it has already invested in a mostly fruitless pursuit of Google.

In its last two fiscal years, Microsoft's online division lost a total of $3.5 billion. Meanwhile, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has emerged as a bigger threat to Microsoft by mining ever bigger profits from its dominant search engine.

Google is on pace to sell more than $20 million in online ads for the second straight year, with most of the revenue coming from short marketing messages placed alongside search results. The recession, though, has been pinching Google, like most companies.

Total U.S. requests at Google declined by 352 million, or nearly 4 percent, from June to 8.78 billion in July, according to comScore. Yahoo's month-to-month query volume dropped nearly 5 percent, or 130 million, to 2.63 billion requests in July.

It's not unusual for search requests to taper off in the summer as more people go on vacation and spend time outside away from their computers.

Total search requests processed by the Internet's five most popular search engines fell from 14.06 billion in June to 13.58 billion in July. The July volume was 15.5 percent higher than at the same time last year.

InterActiveCorp's Ask.com remained the fourth-largest U.S. search engine with a 3.9 percent in July, unchanged from June. AOL, which is supposed to be spun off from Time Warner Inc. later this year, held a 3.1 percent U.S. share, also unchanged from July.

Comments

[LLNYRN]

08:04 AM on 08/19/2009

I love BING.
It's very beautifully laid out.
And it's fast.

But using it on IE8 is the ultimate Pain-In-The-A**!

Instead of jumping on the search engine bandwagon,
Microsoft should be dealing adequately with the issues that constantly plague IE.

[ebleyes]

01:09 AM on 08/19/2009

I think Google need more competition, they are preaching no evil but do it all the same.

[poaster]

01:07 AM on 08/19/2009

Bing the OS2 of search engines....

[sssteverrr]

01:04 AM on 08/19/2009

This idea that Google tops the search market because it is a superior product strikes me as silly. It seems to me they all work about as well. It all adds up to name recognition and cool factor, in other words its just marketing. Bing is nothing except a rather feeble marketing campaign. If search is so lucrative why aren't we seeing nationwide brand building add campaigns. Get cool, get noticed get the business, doesn't seem that tough to me.

[lukebenward]

10:24 PM on 08/18/2009

Just that "new car smell". There's a reason why you trade in your Kia after a year and a half of driving it and go back to your Toyota. And why I didn't mention Detroit-made? heh Well, that's just like going to AskJeeves! ;-)

[ThreeCrows]

10:13 PM on 08/18/2009

I've stopped using Windows Internet Explorer and switched over months ago to Google Chrome. Windows Explorer is just too bloated and runs slow and it seems like every hacker has their mouse pads set to destroy Microsoft for whatever reason. Google Chrome is better and faster for what I need. Plus, it has the added benefit of automatically blocking bad websites with Trojans by displaying a full red page with a warning that the page is corrupted. Google Chrome developers have manged to contain infected websites like a boxed in pen, thus saving you the worry about having unknown bugs entering your system without your knowledge. It doesn't stop cookies but the big bad stuff is blocked. It's too bad Windows couldn't come up with this solution instead of the constant updates of patches and fixes require to thwart and stave off the hacker community.

[Pol Junkie]

07:46 PM on 08/18/2009

Lack of comments sort of says it all.

[airtoast]

04:23 PM on 08/18/2009

Wouldn't we all really like to see a big, bold new product from Microsoft (stifles laughter). The biggest software company in the world can come up with their own ideas, right? No... actually, they can't. Evidence:
Bing/Live Search = Google
Zune = iPod
Internet Explorer = Netscape
Plays for Sure = Fairplay
Project Natal = Wii/Playstation EyeToy
Xbox = PS2/Gamecube
Xbox Live = Dreamcast/Saturn online
Silverlight = Flash
DirectX = OpenGL
Aero = Aqua
Windows Media Player = Quicktime
Gadgets = Widgets
Microsoft Store = Apple Store
Microsoft Gurus = Apple Geniuses
Surface = iPhone OS
Windows = Mac OS

Just to name a few.