Bing Is No. 2 in Search, Yahoo Down, Google Next

[Ci7]

Microsoft Bing has skyrocketed to the number two position in search on the US market, surpassing Yahoo. According to statistics provided by StatCounter, Bing has climbed higher on the cadaver of Live Search in just a week after the Redmond company started the rollout worldwide than the now defunct search engine has ever managed in its years of life. StatCounter has Bing overtaking Yahoo with a market share of 16.28%. Yahoo, the traditional runner-up to Google, has slipped into third place with a share of 10.22%, while the Mountain View search giant still accounts for 71.47%. Globally Yahoo isn't faring all that better, with a share of just 5.13%, compared to Bing's 5.62% and Google's 87.62%.

The worldwide rollout of Bing started on May 28, 2009, and ended June 3rd. On June 1st, market analysis firm Net Applications indicated that within hours of the new Microsoft search engine going live it grabbed a market share of over 6%. Undoubtedly the hype associated with the launch of the new search engine is responsible for the Bing market share explosion. It will be interesting to see whether Bing can maintain the same growth momentum, which is highly unlikely, or at least whether it will be able to convert Yahoo and Google users.

In April 2009, ahead of the launch of Bing, comScore had Google at 64.2% of the US market, Yahoo at 20.4% and Live Search at just 8.2%. For the same month Nielsen Online credited Google with 64.0% of the search engine market in the US, Yahoo with 16.3% and Live Search with 9.9%. But fact is that Yahoo represents nothing more than a stepping stone for Microsoft. Leapfrogging past Yahoo is a bitter sweet victory for the Redmond company, as with the audiences from the two search engines combined the Yahoo-Bing(Live Search) Frankenstein would have been a force worthy to challenge Google.

Once the hype will be over and the dust will have had a chance to settle on Microsoft's new search engine, only then will Bing debut on its Sisyphean journey to catch up with Google. And Google has quite a head start, since it's nothing short of synonymous with Internet search. Still, Microsoft might have a panacea for this. It is slapping a label of information overload on all Internet search before Bing via marketing, and Google is bound to be the heaviest hit.

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[ew2x4]

It's probably all the porn.

[O.G]

If no one used Live Search, why would they just suddenly start using Bing? Bit fishy if you ask me. Just novelty probably, will soon wear off.

[Ci7]

If no one used Live Search, why would they just suddenly start using Bing? Bit fishy if you ask me. Just novelty probably, will soon wear off.

i had switched to bing for one.

[Rigby]

Because Bing is way better than Live Search ever was. The new video search alone with it's live playback is awesome, and the results I get are just as good if not better than Google (which usually gives me a lot more trash in the results).

[James123]

To be fair, it's probably just the fact that a load of people are testing it out because it's new, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to stay no 2 for very long, it'll be interesting to see where it is in a few weeks/months time. (Bing does seem quite good though, so it may well stay in #2)

[Napalm Frog]

Another cool features is the ability to link directly to certain subsections of wiki articles directly from the search. Out of habit I'm used to searching via my address bar with the 'g' keyword, but am forcing myself to use Bing more often. Most of the time I actually like the results better with Bing.

[Brad.]

I use Bing at college, but at home on Chrome I still use google :p

[ViperAFK]

Bing is a lot better than I expected, I am impressed.

Although the name is really stupid.

[Skulltrail]

Does the statistics on Bing include those of Live? (since Bing is essentially Live's successor) If so, that isn't much of a competition. And regardless, Yahoo is inferior to all other search engines. I'm surprised the Ask search engine is not above Yahoo.

[-KJ]

I think Yahoo Search is still alive because a lot of folks still use Yahoo or has their homepage set there which has a little search bar at the top that uses their engine :)

[MR_Candyman]

it's new, people are just trying it out

[CentralDogma]

Reminds me of Cuil. Anyone else remember Cuil? Anyone else remember how it also had porn problems?

[+Elі Subscriber²]

The results are very good, I'm really liking it.

[Growled Member]

I've tried it and it's surprising good. I think you will see Bing's fortune continue to rise. Google is still my #1 though, as I still get better results with it.

[Papz]

the reason why bing is better than live search is because is shows great infomation and great Travel times and a very modern user interface. My family love bing and google.

[Vice]

I imagine Bing's net share is high because it only just released and a lot of people are trying it out for the first time and the word of mouth is spreading 'Hey I just tried this new Search engine with Video previews' etc

The real interesting time will come after a few months. Also I don't think 'Google Next' is really in any realm of possibility lol

[Argi]

When I compared it Google's results were still better.

[9UnknownMen]

Initial bump really. I'm using it just to see if I will find the need to go back to google. So far so good.

[Advent]

I think Yahoo Search is still alive because a lot of folks still use Yahoo or has their homepage set there which has a little search bar at the top that uses their engine :)

or all those Yahoo Toolbars that get installed and force your searches.

I guess I'll mess around with Bing. Never liked Live Search, but meh new things are interesting.

[Silverskull]

Does the statistics on Bing include those of Live? (since Bing is essentially Live's successor) If so, that isn't much of a competition. And regardless, Yahoo is inferior to all other search engines. I'm surprised the Ask search engine is not above Yahoo.

Er, yes, it includes searches from Live.com. Try going there, I think you'll find it's Bing. :p

[hopp58902 Member]

It's just not Google. They focus on one thing and do it best, unlike Microsoft who do thousands and end up with 2 good products - Windows 7 and Office 2007. Meh. It'll wear off.

[shakey_snake]

They focus on one thing

Google? Focuses on one thing? ROFLMAO.

Get a clue.

[I am Reid]

When I compared it Google's results were still better.

How the hell do you "compare" the results?

[null_]

I've switched to using Bing on all of the machines in my home, I'm impressed with the results it provides and the contextual results are really nice.