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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Google search share dips; Bing and Yahoo catching up

By | September 13, 2011, 5:02am PDT

Summary: comScore figures out today shows that Google has lost out to Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing in marketshare, but is still ahead of the fold.

The latest search marketshare data from comScore shows that Google, whilst still high and mighty on its search pedestal, is losing points while its competitors, notably Bing and Yahoo, are gaining.

Overall, the big picture hasn’t changed, but it will be something that Microsoft can revel in during the BUILD conference this week: Google’s search marketshare is nearly 65 percent while Yahoo and Bing are collectively in the low-30 percent range.

Breaking down the numbers further:

Google had 64.8 percent last month, down from 65.1 percent in July — dropping by a third of a percent. But as Google dipped ever so slightly, Yahoo and Bing picked up its losses. Yahoo’s share grew by 0.2 percent to 16.3 percent from the month before, and Bing rose too by 0.3 percent to 14.7 percent.

While Google drops slightly, the other two in-duo are raising their user base. Considering the Microsoft-Yahoo deal last year, whereby Microsoft handles search queries for Yahoo’s pages, the combined effort alone is showing its mark on the search statistics front.

It’s unlikely that the share figures will change as a result of Carol Bartz’s resignation as chief executive and board member of Yahoo — but a company without a leader or firm direction could result in long-term strategy problems for the company.

But as Microsoft saddles up to Facebook, for which the Redmond-based company has shares in, more and more are turning to Facebook as their de-facto search engine.

Google is still far ahead of the pack, however. The company continues to grow and search features are being added all over the place. Yet, with Instant Pages — a feature rolled out by Google in June, which pre-loads the first result of each search — this shows just how the search giant is bringing its core values back to search.

But as Microsoft is still behind Yahoo by nearly two percentage points, one has to wonder whether all the investment and deals with Bing is even worth it.

Related:

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Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from CNN, the Huffington Post, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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RE: Google search share dips; Bing and Yahoo catching up
gtatransam@... 14th Sep
Yahoo was around before Google. Yahoo's search engine is predictive, fast and accurate. I rate Googles search as secondary. Bing is worthless.
I like bing! When it first came out I went to bing and have not had to go back to google since. The picture of the day is better than that white background on google. Google is still a great search but I think bing is better now. I know there are google fans that will say it's not but thats fine thats why they are both here. Use the one you like.
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Choice
facebook@... 13th Sep
Brought to you by Microsoft.

Given these numbers, we should be seeing an article about the fall of Google shortly: www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/why-the-fall-of-explorer-matters/6418

Maybe it is time for Google to give up, since it is at an all-time low www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/internet-explorer-market-share-at-all-time-low-time-to-give-up/4888
@facebook@... The market is getting healthier. The splits for search are about the same as IE / FF / Chrome, and look at how much that change from 90+% has changed the web for the better. I only wish the operating system market had seen a 65% / 16% /15% split between its top three competitors sometime in the last twenty years. Same goes for office suites and computer graphics.
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RE: Google search share dips; Bing and Yahoo catching up
Return_of_the_jedi Updated - 13th Sep
" Bing rose too by 0.3 percent ..."

Needed something anti-Google to write about?
Can .3% be measured?

PS. Margin of error doesn't matter when you are an anti-
Google site. It fits their narrative.
@Return_of_the_jedi Did you read his other article with the hypberbole about Microsoft should give up on IE based on the same size market share? www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/internet-explorer-market-share-at-all-time-low-time-to-give-up/4888 That hardly qualifies him as a quant for Microsoft.

Besides, over all query volume is up 10% y/y That means that .03 is a much bigger number than what it used to be.

Furthermore, what are you trying to infer about this article? Are we not supposed to say anything nice about Microsoft?
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RE: Google search share dips; Bing and Yahoo catching up
Return_of_the_jedi Updated - 13th Sep
@facebook@...

Are we not supposed to say anything nice about Microsoft?

Naw, It's just the over compensation, and it's always at Google's expense. All day Everyday.

PS. Will a Google or anybody for that matter .3% percent rise will even make news? Only if you make it news.
@facebook@...
The volume is up. They ALL got more searches. The others just gained a few more than they had before. Google gained as well, but their cut of the percentage pie is smaller
@Return_of_the_jedi

Hmmm, all I read hear from SJVN and others is the fawning adulation, bordering on sycophancy for Google.
Bing is a great search engine, i prefer it to google, although i dont get all the benefits, as i am in the UK. Everyone i hear from in America thinks Bing gives much better results, and the picture of the day is really good.
@daniejam10
Really? As an american who is very computer involved and around hundreds of users daily. I haven't seen anyone who uses bing or has liked Bing here in the Chicago area. the searches bring back poor results missing many better results then what google pulls up. Bing is very cluttered and takes to long to get to the straight forward answer your looking for. I love Microsoft for windows and the zune but as far as Bing goes its completely usless and time restrictive. Yahoo I didn't even know anyone still used it anymore anywhere. For speed choice and results Google is un matched for search.
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YMMV
facebook@... 13th Sep
@Fletchguy Of the people I associate with in Chicago, it is about 60/40, just like the survey results. Quite frankly, I have been using Bing more and more lately as I noticed results are getting diluted with SEO games on Google. I have to go past page 1 now to get the results I am looking for.
While article seems to be just for the sake of making numbers on Zdnet, its the headline which is amazingly stupid.

I didn't know that gaining 0.3% when you are behind by more than half is called 'catching up'.
of each .3 and each .4 and each .2, after a while, do begin to add up to something big and worthwhile for Google to begin to worry about.

After each .3% is totaled up during the year, you might end up with between 1 and 2% share increase, and after a few years of that, the numbers do start to begin getting notice, not only by advertisers, but by Google and others.

Microsoft/Yahoo search has 31% of market now, and Google has 64.8%, which means a Google advantage of 33.8%. After a 2% gain by MS/Yahoo and a dip at Google of 2%, the difference will be 29.8%, which means that Google will have decreased it's lead by 4% in the span of about a year. That's not something that can be easily dismissed, and it could add up to many millions of lost revenue to Google and millions gained by MS/Yahoo.

Statistically, if .3% were to be the only gain in the span of a few years, then you would be right in belittling the MS/Yahoo gain, but, that's not what's been happening in the last couple of years, where the gains by MS/Yahoo have been steady.
It seems like this article comes out almost every month since Bing started and every month Google has had about 65% market share. So I ask what are they loosing?
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Bing: Microsoft's "Saturn"?
lalogos 13th Sep
Bing may prove to be Microsoft's "Saturn"--a decent product with great value, but costing far too much R&D for the return--just like GM's experiment with the Saturn car line (great car, by the way, sad to see it go).

My gut feeling is that Bing will NOT turn out this way, however. Why? First, MS is not GM--they're in it to win. Period. Second, whenever I hear anti-MS squawking simply because market percentages are cited in a business article, someone, somewhere, is concerned, and that means that Bing/Yahoo are a genuine threat to the "untouchable" Google.
@lalogos
Yahoo was king til Googler popped up one night and took over with simplicity, clean ui and better search results. Bing is like ading a ton of weight around your neck then having some poor results dumped into a pile and left to try to find something that resembles what you searched for. Its suggestions and trying to predict and clutter are what will kill bing. i tried it for awhile when they did bing cash but the results found almost nothing comapred to side by side result tests with google. Only search engine worse I think is Ask Jeeves or whatever its called now.
exceeds all bounds, it might be worthwhile noting that StatCounter Global Stats tell a rather different story - Google's market share in the US (for this story deals, even though for some reason you never mention it, with the US, not the world of which it constitutes a small part) over 80 % and Yahoo's at slightly over, Bing's slightly under 9 % (http://gs.statcounter.com/#search_engine-US-daily-20080701-20110913). Google market share worldwide ? Over 90 % ; neither Yahoo nor Bing make it to 4 %....

Henri
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If not, it's like comparing Apples to Oranges. Comparisons should be for comparable products in comparable markets.
Reason: Noobs getting caught out by malware style tool bar installations, default search change pop-ups, and integration with chat software, browsers, device SOE's and corporate owned websites.

I highly doubt the reason for the change is largely based on conscious choice at all. Just the fact that MOST home users don't have a clue. They just hit "search".
@daengbo
You are spot on. What the numbers reflect are 1) the reality of the difference in experiences desired by users - design, results, look n feel, etc. and 2) the increasing willingness of users to try alternatives (and bing!) stick with something else they seem to prefer. Duh?? Why does that surprise us? Microsoft has hit on a strategy that is working and the customer is winning. Why is that not a good thing?
Yahoo was around before Google. Yahoo's search engine is predictive, fast and accurate. I rate Googles search as secondary. Bing is worthless.

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