Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King
Home / News & Blogs / Between the Lines

Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent

By | February 8, 2011, 6:24am PST

Summary: Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo appears to be paying off—at least for search market share, according to Experian Hitwise.

Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo appears to be paying off—at least for search market share, according to Experian Hitwise.

Amid an increasingly testy war of words between Google and Microsoft over search, Experian Hitwise puts Bing’s share—including Yahoo and Bing searches—at 27.4 percent in January, up 6 percent from December.

The standings look like this:

ComScore’s December search data found 69.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 24.4 percent of searches were powered by Bing. It remains to be seen whether comScore shows a similar Bing gain in January.

In addition, Experian Hitwise says Bing and Yahoo search had the highest success rates in January. In a nutshell, 81 percent of searches on Bing and Yahoo led to a visit to a Website. Google’s success rate was 65 percent.

While these statistics aren’t set in stone, they do provide some insight into the back and forth between Bing and Google. Bing is increasingly looking like a threat to Google especially as it nears the 30 percent share mark as measured by a bevy of scorekeepers.

Related: Google vs. Microsoft over search results: Top takeaway is Bing matters

Yahoo earnings: Revenue down as Microsoft deal rolls out

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Between the Lines”

Topics

Google Inc., Hitwise, Yahoo! Inc., Experian, Bing, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Internet, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

46
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

goff256 sarcasm? Too close to reality!
PercySludge 11th Feb 2011
@goff256 -
Sarcasm! OK, NOW I get it.
LOL! Sadly however it's all too close to *actual* moronic macfanboy and Linuxoid comments.
Geez! ya gotta tone down your sarcasm, or more likely, make it even more outlandish! Migod! It's gettin' difficult to tell the real fanboyz anymore!
One of the reasons I gave up slashdot... wink
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Rich Miles 8th Feb 2011
"Growing like a weed." Bit of an understatement. It will be interesting to see if the "bing sting" had any effect.
0 Votes
+ -
Lies!
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
My sources tell me that Bing isn't used by anybody, that it's a failed venture that needs to be killed. Clearly it couldn't be growing.
0 Votes
+ -
Just like
Cylon Centurion 8th Feb 2011
@goff256

How no one is using Windows, and quickly switching to Linux operating systems?
0 Votes
+ -
Well, yeah
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
And everyone who doesn't is a... what was the term? Windows Propeller Head?

I haven't checked recently, does Bing have something as awesome as Google Instant? Did they ever roll out that HTML5 update?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Cylon Centurion 8th Feb 2011
@goff256

No, they're taking forever with those updates. I was excited to see the HTML5 demo, but so far nothing has come of it.
0 Votes
+ -
I am disappoint
Michael Alan Goff Updated - 8th Feb 2011
@Cylon Centurion 0005

I have always been a big fan of Microsoft, but they are really screwing the pooch on this. They need to speed up development on things, and so far I haven't seen it. This is why I stick with Google for the time being. Stuff like instant might not be perfect, but at least Google seems to be changing it up.

Microsoft needs to pick up the pace, I liked their demo.

edit: Maybe they'll tell us about it/give us a date/release HTML5 Bing on the IE show the 10th.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
bitcrazed 8th Feb 2011
@Cylon Centurion 0005 - I expect the Bing HTML5 update to arrive alongside or shortly after the final release of IE9.
0 Votes
+ -
I hope that isn't true
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
Or maybe that IE 9 skips RC status and goes straight to RTM.
0 Votes
+ -
Just Like
Marco nn Updated - 8th Feb 2011
@Cylon Centurion 0005

Something like to?:
Gartner: More than half of IT organizations deploy open-source software

"Twenty-two percent of respondents have deployed open-source software to all departments. Forty-six percent of IT organizations use open-source for specific projects or select departments."

Remember; Less than 10 percent of IT organizations used open-source software five years ago..
0 Votes
+ -
So what you're saying is
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
78% don't use Open Source exclusively.
54% don't use Open Source at all.

So what this means is that the Closed Source (very few companies) are beating the large Open Source movement? I wouldn't call that a bragging point.
0 Votes
+ -
So what you're saying is
Marco nn Updated - 8th Feb 2011
@goff256:2So what this means is that the Closed Source (very few companies) are beating the large Open Source movement? I wouldn't call that a bragging point

No, I am saying that the growth is from 10% to 54%.(400% approximately) and speeding.

BTW: You always see the glass half empty, do you?
0 Votes
+ -
Even if the glass is half full
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
It is half empty as well.

And yes, Open Source has had great growth over the past five years. It's really something of a... dream. But we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves and declare Open Source the winner.

It was this that caused Windows to stagnate. It's getting less stagnant, of course, but Microsoft being at the top and knowing they were ruined them.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Linux Geek 8th Feb 2011
@goff256
I agree this is all manufactured data to hide a M$ failure.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
@Linux Geek

Exactly! I'm willing to bet that the info on Windows having 90% marketshare is just another lie. I'd be willing to peg it at 30% tops. Come on, everybody is using Linux and OSX, but mostly Linux.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
PercySludge 8th Feb 2011
@goff256
Hello. 1987 called, and they'd like more of your opinions!
In the meantime, here's a zinger: My sources tell me that Windows isn't used by anybody, that it's a failed venture that needs to be killed. Clearly it couldn't be growing.
Time to Get out of the sludge, Goff256...
0 Votes
+ -
It's called sarcasm
Michael Alan Goff 9th Feb 2011
Got it?
0 Votes
+ -
goff256 sarcasm? Too close to reality!
PercySludge 11th Feb 2011
@goff256 -
Sarcasm! OK, NOW I get it.
LOL! Sadly however it's all too close to *actual* moronic macfanboy and Linuxoid comments.
Geez! ya gotta tone down your sarcasm, or more likely, make it even more outlandish! Migod! It's gettin' difficult to tell the real fanboyz anymore!
One of the reasons I gave up slashdot... wink
0 Votes
+ -
I don't know anyone that Bings..
itguy08 8th Feb 2011
outside of Microsoft reps. Not one.

Then again I don't know anyone who Yahoo's anything.

Everyone uses Google.
0 Votes
+ -
Everybody uses google
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
I agree.

But it's better to let people think that Bing and Yahoo are used, if only to keep Google from becoming a Monopoly in legal eyes. *wink wink*
0 Votes
+ -
because you don't know anybody outside your basement empire
Ron Bergundy 8th Feb 2011
@itguy08!!! you have to actually have freinds to know what they use but i was LMAO becasue we knew you would be the single person who "doesnt know anybody who uses anything M$!!!"

LMAO!!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
tonymcs@... 8th Feb 2011
@itguy08

Well I use Bing both on desktop and my WP7 phone. What magical power is MS using to create search shares without anyone using them?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
PercySludge 8th Feb 2011
@itguy08
LOL!
Must be an awful lot of MS reps searching for my websites! See my comments elsewhere. And stop whistling past the Googegrave-yard.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Loverock Davidson 8th Feb 2011
Oh those employees at Google must be scared now with the silent Bing creeping up on them. Although I'm not shocked I know Google is. Who would have thought sitting around playing with office toys all day would lead to a diminished services. LOL!! This is really good for Bing, i have it set as the default on my web browsers, and whenever I visit someone I set it as the default search on their browsers as well. If everyone joins me on this effort we can make Bing the #1 search engine.
0 Votes
+ -
I will likely try it out again when it gets its HTML5 facelift
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
Both of them give relevant results, but Google Instant is just so much fun for me to use.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
ejhonda 8th Feb 2011
@Loverock Davidson 9 out of 10 on this - good job! A few more like this one and I'll put you up with Mike Cox.
0 Votes
+ -
Isn't "silent Bing" an oxymoron?
daboochmeister 8th Feb 2011
.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
none none Updated - 8th Feb 2011
MS appears to be spending a lot of money making deals to drive Bing traffic.

I use Google for search yet I am part of the Bing usage numbers because I've clicked on links and been taken to Bing with a search embedded in the url query string. A lot of Bing traffic is manufactured




happy
0 Votes
+ -
OF COURSE IT IS!!
Ron Bergundy 8th Feb 2011
@none none!! its not like google does the same things!
0 Votes
+ -
I know what you mean
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
I keep hearing from everyone about this sort of thing...

no wait, I just heard about it today from you.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
IE9 8th Feb 2011
@none none "MS appears to be spending a lot of money making deals to drive Bing traffic. "

Actually Google is spending 6 billion a year on getting traffic.
0 Votes
+ -
Those aren't counted by ComScore
LiquidLearner 8th Feb 2011
@none none

Not sure about this one though. I know ComScore explicitly excludes data that uses linked searches. They have to be user generated searches.
0 Votes
+ -
Bing searchresults better than Google
IE9 8th Feb 2011
Amazing that the Bing results lead to more page hits.

Time for Google to start copying Bing.

Also weird that Microsoft still does not roll out Bing worldwide. How stupid is that.
0 Votes
+ -
Google grew at a faster rate than Bing...
jasonp@... 8th Feb 2011
@IE9
Kinda throws a damper on the Bing parade.
0 Votes
+ -
Against
LiquidLearner 8th Feb 2011
@jasonp@...

Webcrawler and Yahoo directories. They didn't have very good competition then. The fact that Bing has gained this much on Google is pretty impressive.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
daboochmeister 8th Feb 2011
@IE9 - honestly, I expect that's more a result of the use cases, that Bing is used for specific, targeted searches by a specialized populace, while Google is used more generally, by a larger populace. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm not making an absolute statement about every single search, I'm talking bell curves, and Bing's median being more toward the targeted, specialized search.

And yes, entirely anecdotal based on what I've seen people do. Fwiw, ymmv, etc.
0 Votes
+ -
Funny thing is...
jasonp@... 8th Feb 2011
Google market share is going up too. Bing growth isn't eating into Google market share at all. From the comScore article, Bing market share rose 0.2% between November and December while Google market share rose 0.4%...that's double the growth for those who are mathematically challenged.
0 Votes
+ -
So the whole
Michael Alan Goff 8th Feb 2011
Google is being used 2% less than before thing is a lie?
0 Votes
+ -
It's because they are giving away points to buy things
mike0062@... 8th Feb 2011
People are using bing because they started giving points.I already got $10 in gift cards.
0 Votes
+ -
Use Bing all the time!
jscott418 8th Feb 2011
One of Microsoft's success stories for sure! As far as Linux?
That's so 90's. I use Windows 7 and Mac OS X.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
ejhonda 8th Feb 2011
Can't rid my VZW Blackberry of Bing as the search provider whether you want it or not. Had to finally install the Google search app to avoid it. Bleh.
0 Votes
+ -
Bing Search Success 81% versus Google's 65%
i_jessica 8th Feb 2011
I agree with this and, despite not being a "Microsoft propeller head" [earlier comment above], have long preferred Bing's search engine and results. It just WORKS. I don't know what Bing copied or didn't copy from Google, given that I get better results, consistently, from Bing whenever I search.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
Trep Ford 8th Feb 2011
I like seeing competition in this arena. And it seems to be stirring up some changes and improvements, more than a couple of which were key gripes of mine in the earlier iterations of search tools.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent
jeverettk 8th Feb 2011
Bing share = Google users w/hands clapped over ears louding shouting "I'M NOT USING GOOGLE! I'M NOT USING GOOGLE! LALALA!!" while using Google.
0 Votes
+ -
MS is spidering my sites DAILY!
PercySludge Updated - 8th Feb 2011
I track my all my websites, and try and look at the analytics of them at least daily.
Occasionally I will see a google spider visit. On some of them once or twice a week at most.
But Microsoft? It's now spidering MOST of my sites almost on a daily basis. This has been going on for the past month or two.
Sample visit: msnbot-207-46-199-11.search.msn.com ... Is this a spider? Let me know if it isn't!

They seem to be building up data for one helluva search engine! All that crap about MS stealing google's website searching- if it were so, why is MS continually visiting my websites?
E.G.: A simple one
Just for fun?
I think MS has quietly declared war on Google and does not want to let the cat out of the bag. Yet.
0 Votes
+ -
re. More search engine stats....
PercySludge Updated - 8th Feb 2011
More info on this:
The search engine of choice these days looking for and finding MY websites (OK, not very big, and not TOO many hits) these days seems to be about 60% google, 30% Bing and the rest for poor old Yahoo.

This has changed from Fall,2010 when it was 75% Goog, 15% Yahoo and 10% Bing. Any trends you see here?
Yahoo should have let MS buy them when they had the chance. Got any Yahoo stock ya wanna dump? LOL!
0 Votes
+ -
Now we know ...
WilErz 9th Feb 2011
... what was behind Google's deceptive mudslinging at Bing.

The growing challenge from Bing may also be behind the CEO change at Google. Eric Schmidt was, after all, CEO of Novell in the late '90s, when Microsoft finally overtook the company in the network OS market, and proceeded to all but obliterate it.

In the early '90s, Novell Netware commanded over 70 per cent of the NOS market, and had easily beaten back Microsoft's first two attempts to challenge it (MS-NET and LAN Manager). Persistent as ever, Microsoft tried again, launching a server version of its new Windows NT OS in 1993. With NT, Microsoft made an all-out assault on the server market, whilst Novell poured its resources into weak challengers to MS Office, hoping to kill Microsoft's biggest cash cow (like Google are trying to do with Google Apps and Chrome OS?).

It took a few years, but by 1996, Windows NT was outselling Netware, and MS Office had barely been dented by Novell's assaults. By 1998 or so, Windows NT's installed base overtook Novell's, and Windows has been the leading server OS ever since. In 1999, Netware fell behind Linux to third place, and Novell, having lost its cash cow, became an irrelevance. Meanwhile, Windows Server never looked back, and continues to increase its lead over Linux.

I can understand why Google are scared. They should be. They don't want to be the Novell of the '10s, and they don't want to be led by a CEO who's already been beaten by Microsoft once.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix