Bing Reduces Its Ping

by Edmund Jenks | October 1, 2009 at 05:44 am

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Bing Reduces Its Ping
Bing Records First Monthly Decline Since Launch

Bing's monthly market share in the US and globally has fallen for the first time since its launch, according to analysis conducted by web analytics firm StatCounter. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that Bing's share of the US search market in September fell by over one percentage point to 8.51% from 9.64% in August. There was little consolation for Microsoft from the performance of its new partner, Yahoo! which also declined, to 9.40% from 10.50%.

"The trend has been downwards for Bing since mid August," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "The wheels haven't fallen off but the underlying trend must be a little worrying for Microsoft."

Google was the beneficiary from the decline of its main rival, increasing by more than two percentage points to 80.08% in September from 77.83% the previous month.

Globally, Bing also declined slightly to 3.25% from 3.58% - a trend mirrored by Yahoo! which fell to 4.37% from 4.84%. Google breached the 90% mark to 90.54% - similar to its global market share a year previously (90.53%).

Data is based on an analysis of 4.6 billion search engine referring clicks (1.1 billion from the US) which were collected during the period September 2008 to September 2009 from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

StatCounter, which provides free website traffic analysis, is one of the largest web analytics firms in the world monitoring in excess of ten billion pageloads per month.

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US Search Market

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Date Bing Yahoo! Bing & Yahoo! Combined Google Sep 2008 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 Aug 2009 Sep 2009

5.71%*	12.57%	18.28%*	79.36%
7.81%*	10.99%	18.80%*	78.72%
8.23%*	11.04%	19.27%*	78.48%
9.41%	10.95%	20.36%	77.54%
9.64%	10.50%	20.14%	77.83%
8.51%	9.40%	17.91%	80.08%

* Market share figure includes MSN Search and Live Search

(ht: StatCounter)

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Jordan Yerman

at 06:14 on October 1st, 2009

While Bing is better than anyone expected, it doesn't crawl as often as Google, and therefore its results are just a bit late. When you're swimming against the Michael Phelps of the search pool, "a bit late" equals "losing".

Edmund Jenks

at 06:26 on October 1st, 2009

Excellent point!

Amy Judd

at 07:06 on October 1st, 2009

Ed,

Sorry, but this needs to be in highlight like we talked about before and then with an original intro. I asked you to message me if you had any questions and you didn't so I assumed you were on board with what we were asking. This isn't singling you out; all members have to go by the same rules; staff included.

Please place this piece in highlight with an original intro and I'll give you a bit of time to do this, but until then this piece cannot reach the front page I'm afraid.

If you need any assistance, I'm here to help.

Edmund Jenks

at 08:14 on October 1st, 2009

I am getting tired of being directed by editors here on NP ... first, through directives from STAFF - then when I follow this instruction, QueenHeart calls me on the carpet for using Highlight.

I really wish everyone would get their story straight.

IF the posting is from MY BLOG ... what should I do? What do I highlight if I am publishing the information as an original piece without reference material?

If I do a posting where there is reference material embedded in the published material, your instruction is correct ... but THIS posting does not apply as it was posted at MY BLOG - I would get hammered by QueenHeart for Highlighting the posting!

I suppose if I were getting a paycheck from Clarity Media, material that I create would first be created here at NowPublic as opposed to any of MY BLOGs thus eliminating the need for Highlight of any of my original posting material that appears without reference.

Mritunjay

at 17:32 on October 3rd, 2009

PCWorld reports some reasons and watchword for Bing's stagnation:

"In the past, Microsoft has been notorious for force-feeding its products and services down the throats of unsuspecting users, and it may try those shenanigans again with Bing. A "glitch" in Internet Explorer 6 reportedly made Bing the default search engine for IE6 users. And last May, Windows 7 Release Candidate automatically configured IE8 as the default browser. Force-feeding, however, is a dangerous tactic that could result in a Bing backlash. Microsoft would be wise to tread lightly there.

Bribery is another option. Microsoft recently launched aCashback promotion that doubled the monetary rewards for users who click a sponsored link on a Bing search results page and then make a purchase. A nice perk, sure, but cashback deals don't always draw big crowds. If they did, the Discover Card, with its 5 percent cashback bonus, wouldn't be an also-ran behind Visa and MasterCard."

-PC World

Dan Ouellette

at 19:16 on October 4th, 2009

Thanks for posting Edmund. As a Search professional I do not optimize for Bing however I think Microsoft has done a great job of creating buzz around this engine as my clients call out Bing regularly. I do like Bing however I cannot imagine it taking any more market share away from Yahoo or Google. Bing may have already found its maximum market share.