usaseopros.com - Search Engine Optimization

I told myself it wasn’t going to be like this: checking the StatCounter stats for US search engine market share daily.

US Search Engine Market Share June 2009

One day Bing rises above Yahoo and overtakes the number two slot in the US…the next day, Bing’s glory is behind it and the market share has fallen.

Bing is new, and it will probably take a few months before things settle down and Bing finds its proper place in the industry. Above or below Yahoo, it’s almost certainly going to be significantly behind Google.

From its low on June 7, Bing has crept back to recapture 1.34 percent of the market for a total of 6.95 percent of the US market share. Not bad – but still third.

What’s most telling is where the percentages are coming from. Google gave up 63 percent of Bing’s market share gain – the rest coming from a mixture of AOL, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and “other”.

Why is it that Google is losing the larger chunk of market share? I would have thought Google users would be more loyal than your average Ask Jeeves user. It could be that Google’s market share is large enough that a certain percentage is simply always going to flock to the newest and “best” search engine…sorry, decision engine. If you’re an Ask Jeeves user, you’re probably pretty faithful since such a small portion of the US uses it.

So right now it looks like Yahoo is in the middle of a Google – Microsoft search engine battle. Not really a fair fight, but at least Microsoft has the deep pockets to keep fighting versus Cuil or WolframAlpha.

It’s also interesting to note where Microsoft is airing its Bing advertisements on TV. Watching the Daily Show on Comedy Central last night, we were shown two advertisements for Bing. I guess Microsoft figures the average Daily Show watcher is somewhat new-savvy and is more likely to get online to learn more about topics that interest them. Enter Bing.

Want to learn more about Peter Schiff and his 2007 book Crash Proof? Then Microsoft would prefer you Bing! it.

Will Bing continue to grow at Google’s expense? Maybe, maybe not. In the meantime, I might pick up a copy of Schiff’s book and see if I can learn something. Heading over to Google to learn more…

By: Zack S.