Microsoft’s Bing overtook Yahoo! as the number two search engine in the United States and worldwide on Thursday (4th June) according to our StatCounter Global Stats data. Bing grabbed market share from Google.
“It remains to be seen if Bing falls away after the initial novelty and promotion but at first sight it looks like Microsoft is on to a winner,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying that he wanted Microsoft to become the second biggest search engine within five years. Following the breakdown in talks to acquire Yahoo! at a cost of $40bn it looks as if he may have just achieved that with Bing much sooner and a lot cheaper than anticipated.”
Our analysis finds that in the US Bing leapfrogged Yahoo to take second place on 16.28%. Yahoo! has 10.22%. Google still commands the US search engine market with 71.47%.
Globally Bing at 5.62% has taken a narrow lead over Yahoo! (5.13%). Google worldwide retains 87.62% of the market.
StatCounter Global Stats, a free online service which captures market share battles of search engines, browsers and operating systems including mobile, was launched in March this year.
The StatCounter Global Stats research data is based on four billion pageloads per month. Other regional and country breakdowns can be viewed at: http://gs.statcounter.com
Full press release available here.
UPDATE 11 June 2009:
While Bing has fallen back to third place behind Google and Yahoo! it is winning market share for Microsoft against its two main rivals in the US and worldwide according to our latest analysis.
We analyzed search engine market share two weeks before and after the formal launch of Bing on May 28th (14th May to the 27th May and the 28th May to 10th June). For the US market it found:
Google decreased from 78.68% to 77.94% (-0.74%)
Yahoo decreased from 11.46% to 10.76% (-0.7%)
Microsoft (Bing, MSN Search and Live Search) increased from 7.4% to 9% (+1.6%)
(See here and here)
“It is too early to say what the long term result will be but this is a creditable performance by Bing,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO StatCounter. “It remains to be seen what happens to Bing after user curiosity and the reported $100m advertising budget runs out.”
Worldwide, comparing the two weeks before and after the Bing launch, StatCounter reports a similar trend with Microsoft taking market share.
Google decreased from 89.81% to 89.69% (-0.12%)
Yahoo decreased from 5.34% to 5.1% (-0.24%)
Microsoft (Bing, MSN Search and Live Search) increased from 3.08% to 3.5% (+0.42%)
(See here and here)
Full press release available here.
I hadn’t even heard about Bing until I read this post. Looks quite colourful compared with Google!
I wouldn’t say they’ve done this legitimately. Aside from all the curious people whoa re just checking it out due to the media hype, the vast majority of its users are only there because they were FORCED to use it. Windows Update switched their default engine when they updated to IE8. On top of that, anyone who used Live search is now on Bing as Live is no more.
Most people don’ even have a clue how to change their default engine. I’ve written a couple of articles on Bing and get dozens of people a day commenting on it asking me how to remove it because they dont know how. They are also quite outraged about being forced to switch.
Dont get me wrong, it’s a slick search engine and has a better video search than Google but that’s about all I’d use it for. It has some quirks that I just cant get past. Plus I use Google for everything else so I’m already there when I need to search for something. And besides, competition is a good thing 😀
It looks like many people are testing this new search engine. If they like it, they might stick to it. Nothing lasts forever on Internet and it will be interesting to see if Bing keeps its share after its first weeks.
I suspect it’s because of it being new to the internet. Although most critics believes that the off-line media promotion did the work mostly.
Very helpful of you to post information like this for all of us to use.
Precision: From Bing’s main page that is, you click on More, then on Xrank.
Has anyone checked out xrank. From main page, you click on More, then on Xrank. In many respects, it is similar to Google’s Zeitgeist or Yahoo’s Buzz. However, most popular pictures or videos is a plus.
That’s good to know.
Can bing bring some thing new???
Welcome Bing. We hope you won’t disappear very soon!
And thanks to Statcounter for information.
I would love it if someone swoops in and break the hold that Google has over everything. Really fed up with always worrying about Mother Google’s reaction every time I change something on my website.
I have used stat counter for some time, it’s just the best.
As for Microsoft and yahoo stats, mmm, google is the only one that matters for me.
A short and memorable domain name should also work in Microsoft’s favour with this new search engine. The question is whether they are better able to leverage their dominance in operating systems to increase their search market share.
It’s good to see that Microsoft are taking search seriously, because search is likely to be the answer to the company’s prayers.
I think Google still stronger at this moment, it’s a long way for Bing to catch up.
It will be interesting how Google will react to Bing’s recent popolarity. No matter if it is temporary or permanent, Google will need to keep on their toes.
Let’s see what will Google do for this competition
It’s MSN search with a new name and better results.
It will all depend on the quality of their search results. I’m still doubtful whether the popularity will last after the initial interest. It was probably mostly thanks to massive advertising like Bing! adverts on television.
Competition has just started with But It Not Google(BING) ….
Time will show the truth. I don’t think Bing can overtake yahoo and it’s impossible to overtake google. New ideas and a little creativity is needed to beat yahoo and of course as Mr apple says a little vision.