Posts Tagged ‘search engine market share’

A #1 Rank in Bing is Better Than Ranking #2 in Google in 2010

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

About a week ago comScore released their qSearch analysis showing how many searches were performed in the U.S. by major search engines for November 2009. Google came out on top of course, but with Bing more than likely powering Yahoo in the near future, an interesting question came up: Is it going to be better to rank #1 in Bing or #2 in Google in 2010?

The ideal situation would land you on top of both search engines, but if you had to pick one, which one would be more beneficial? The decision would vary slightly from industry to industry, but in general, how much traffic would each spot get you?

(Bing + Yahoo) > Google (sort of)

Google powered about 9.5 billion searches in the month of November for the U.S., which amounts to about 2/3 of the total searches performed. Bing had about 10 percent of the market share and Yahoo had 17.5 percent. If you add up Yahoo and Bing’s searches in the U.S. they total about 4 billion, not even half of Google. Combining those numbers with a study done on search engine result page click through rates will give you a good idea on how much traffic each rank in each search engine gives.

When you crunch the current numbers and take into account that Bing will power Yahoo in 2010, the #1 spot in Bing results will net around 2 billion clicks, assuming search numbers stay roughly the same. Using the same math, the #2 spot in Google will net about 1.2 billion clicks. This shows that, in general, a #1 ranking in Bing will be much more effective than a #2 ranking in Google.

SEOs and marketers should take note of this. Much more energy is spent optimizing for Google than any other search engine even though it might be a better idea to focus on Bing very soon. Since all the energy is being focused on Google, it could be simpler to get better rankings in Bing. While Bing may not beat Google anytime soon in market share, there could be a shift in where some SEOs begin spending more of their time.

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It Turns Out Bing Didn’t Splash the Pond Much

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

bing-logo1google_logo

Because this company is involved with SEO, we pay close attention to what’s going on in the search engine industry. Everyone knows Google reigns supreme, but Bing has drawn a lot of attention and made a lot of noise for itself.

Meanwhile there’s Yahoo, AOL, Ask, Lycos, and a whole slew of others…from Altavista to Zapmeta.

I’ll admit this post was spurred by the fact that I’m tired of hearing about Bing. Microsoft has done a nice job with re-branding Live and MSN Search and I truly enjoy the home page for Bing.

But many Web sites have written articles about Bing overtaking Yahoo (officially 4 times in the past 51 days), that I felt obligated to clarify the status of Google -> Yahoo -> Bing -> AOL -> Others.

It has been 51 days since Bing officially went live on June 1, 2009. The average daily U.S. search engine market share for the top four is as follows:


Google: 78.32 percent

Yahoo: 10.98 percent

Bing: 8.44 percent

AOL: 1.27 percent


Standing alone, those number really don’t tell us too much about Microsoft’s search engine and it’s relation to everyone else. So I looked at the 51 days preceding Bing’s launch as well.

For the 51 days leading up to June 1, I combined Microsoft’s two search engines (Live and MSN) and compared that total to the other top three.


Google: 78.86 percent

Yahoo: 11.07 percent

Live + MSN: 7.57 percent

AOL: 1.35 percent


There was only one day I could find prior to June 4 where Microsoft’s offerings beat out Yahoo for number two in the U.S and that was May 28 – the day the news broke about Bing going live in a few days.

So while we can congratulate Microsoft on putting together a very nice looking engine, and providing quick, accurate results, there really hasn’t been too much of a change overall.

Yes, every tenth of a percentage point counts – particularly for Yahoo, who is tenaciously holding onto its number two ranking. But Bing’s appearance online hasn’t exactly sent shockwaves across the industry.

It’s only been 51 days, so much is left to be seen – but we can quit it with the “Bing will become the next Google” garbage. It isn’t going to happen.

I still kind of think that Microsoft is just looking for a way to force Yahoo to sell.

By: Zack S.

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Google Not the Least Bit Worried about Bing, Microsoft

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Microsoft New OS Fail

Microsoft New OS Fail

Make no bones about it – Google and Microsoft are playing hardball these days.

The two tech giants continued to launch shots across each other’s bow late yesterday when Google played a trump card with its Chrome operating system.

Microsoft has been building noise for its Gazelle browser/OS hybrid for a while now, but Google published news last night that appears to have stolen Microsoft’s show.

This news comes on the heels of the Bing versus Google “battle” for search engine market share.

I say “battle” because it really isn’t a fair fight. Sure, Microsoft has thrown reportedly tens of millions of dollars behind Bing for a marketing campaign – but has it worked?

Tongues were sent wagging across the internet when Bing overtook Yahoo for second place in the search engine race. For. A. Day.

Furthermore, there has been a lot of commotion about Bing scooping of market share throughout the US from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Ask and others.

Let’s make something perfectly clear. While the US is a large, and albeit important, chunk of the global search engine market, it is only a portion.

World Internet Usage

World Internet Usage

In fact, of the estimated 1.59 billion internet users spread out across the globe, the United States represents only about 14 percent of them.

The geographical section of Asia (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, Taiwan – as defined by InternetWorldStats) comprises a staggering 41.2 percent of the global internet users.

And guess what search engine is most used by the world? Yup – Google.

global-search-engine-numbers

Global Search Engine Usage

While Google holds a “mere” 81.08 percent of the search engine market share in the United States, it has a stranglehold of 89.05 percent globally (as of July 6, 2009).

And here’s another fun statistic: While so much has been written about Bing and the impact it might have on the industry, from July 1, 2008 to July 6, 2009 Google has actually INCREASED its global search engine market share!

But in the US – where Bing has supposedly made such a splash? Google grew its market share from 79.03 percent from July 1 2008 to 81.08 percent on July 7 2009.

us-search-engine-stats-past-year

US Search Engine Usage

So why is Google not concerned about Microsoft? Because Google is the internet’s leading search engine, and the internet is global. Decision engine or not, Microsoft has to be running scared.

They aren’t winning any share of mind in the search engine industry, and now Google is going right after their bread and butter – the operating system market.

I’m not about to write off Microsoft and their share of the OS market just yet. Linux-based operating systems are nothing new, but they have yet to make much of a dent in Microsoft’s near monopoly of the industry.

Nevertheless, Google is right where it wants to be…on top of the search engine market share, on the top Twitter trending topics, and keeping Microsoft off balance and running to catch up!

By: Zack S.

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Search Engine Market Share and User Loyalty

Monday, June 29th, 2009

statcounterglobal1

Amid all the news about Microsoft rolling their Live Search and MSN search engines into Bing, Google unveiling new features day after day, and Yahoo updating their site, there’s a startling trend in the search engine market share: one of very little change.

Brand loyalty is often something attributed to basketball shoes and automobiles – not necessarily search engines.

But according to StatCounter, the overall market share percentages in the United States for each major search engine have barely moved.

search-engine-market-share-may-18-to-present

Google and Yahoo have both registered small decreases in overall market share since July 2008, but in the interim, both have moved up and down – much like the stock market.

Looking at Google’s market share, as of June 28, 2009, Google holds 78.34 percent of the US market. That’s back up after Bing’s one-day leap in the standings on June 4, and less than a one point drop since July 2008.

search-engine-monthly-market-share-july-07-to-present

Sure – the search engine industry is getting more competitive. Google no sooner unveiled their Wonder Wheel feature than rumors of a Yahoo makeover and update were announced. Bing made a splash in the market as well, but overall, the numbers really don’t move much.

Google is still king, and Yahoo, Microsoft (first MSN and Live Search, now Bing) make up distant second and third, respectively. Jumped at the bottom of the heap is everyone else – AOL, Ask, etc.

While the other search engines don’t have a large share of the market, it appears that they have staying power. In fact, AOL’s market share is up from 1.28 percent on May 18, 2009 to 1.41 percent on June 28, 2009. Not a large gain, and the numbers have bounced around, but users are staying loyal.

This brings me to user loyalty. I’ve never really considered myself loyal to one particular search engine over another, but I almost always use Google. The results are fast, usually accurate, and almost any random query I posit, I get what I’m looking for.

Users of Ask, AOL, Yahoo and every search engine have for some reason chosen to stick with their respective sites. AOL and Yahoo have informative home pages filled with news, local weather and personalized recommendations. Some users probably enjoy the home page service – but Google offers all the same stuff; you just have to click for it.

As SEOs, we know that Google is the giant, with a big target painted on its side. But this trend of user loyalty proves that smaller search engines like Ask and AOL are valuable for targeting users who will always stay with what they like.

Google will remain the major target, but we shouldn’t ignore the smaller search engines in the process. For whatever reason, some users have chosen those search engines and there’s no point in missing out on reaching those users!

By: Zack S.

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Moment at the Top Short Lived for Bing?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

We wrote last week about Bing jumping past Yahoo and grabbing a large chunk of search engine market share from Google and Yahoo. The big question was whether Microsoft could buy its way to the top, or at least use its deep pockets to pose a legitimate challenge to Google.

Apparently not.

While last Thursday saw Bing gobble up market share, StatCounter shows that Bing has slid drastically since then. At time of this writing, Bing held 5.51 percent of the US market share, compared to 10.94 percent for Yahoo and 81.31 percent for Google. Globally, Google holds a much more commanding lead at 90.27 percent.

So what happened to Bing? Have we seen the initial interest and curiosity wane and reality sink in? Will Microsoft’s reported $80 million to $100 million in ad spending on Bing not have the intended effect?

Bing doesn’t appear to be the next great thing in the search engine industry, but it’s not bad. The expandable content preview boxes are a nice touch, and the “decision engine” does a nice job of offering you related search links.

For example, a search for the singer Sheryl Crow turns up the expected results, but Bing gives you a link list on the side including lyrics, albums, fan club and tickets. Clever, but obviously not enough.

Google has managed to build itself and its name into near synonymy with search. In fact, while writing this post, I was on the Bing page and wanted to search for an article for research. My fingers automatically typed in Google’s URL to perform the search instead of just using Bing. Now that is successful branding.

I still think that Microsoft’s best bet to challenge Google in the search engine and online ad revenue industry is to buy or partner with Yahoo. It may very well still happen, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We’ll keep an eye on the market share numbers for Bing, but I don’t think we’ll see anything like we saw last week.

By: Zack S.

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Bing and Google: Can Microsoft Buy Its Way to the Top?

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Google and Microsoft – one is a dominant force in the online search engine and ad revenue market and the other a ubiquitous operating system provider.

Recently Microsoft announced and went live with a new search engine they’re calling a decision engine, Bing. You may have seen Microsoft’s first ad on TV or online in the past few days.

Yesterday Microsoft released their second such ad.

Both are clever ads and very well done, evidence of Microsoft’s deep pockets and the millions budgeted for the Bing ad campaign.

Microsoft’s intent is to grab a larger share of the search engine market than it was able to accomplish with MSN or Live Search.

Whether this will come at the expense of Yahoo or Google is somewhat left to be seen. But we do have some stats from StatCounter that show a jump in US market share for Bing and it surpassing Yahoo for the number two engine.

Simultaneously there is a slight downward trend in Google’s overall US share – so it appears Microsoft may have achieved what it was looking for…so far.

Bing has an advertising campaign behind it rumored to be in the $80 million to $100 million, no small change. It very well may be that the spike in market share is simply curiosity coming from exposure.

Seeing Yahoo get leapfrogged so quickly caught me by surprise some. I know money can buy a lot of things, but in a matter of mere days, Bing grabbed a significant chunk of the search engine market share.

That begs the question: Can Bing hold onto it or will interest subside when the ad campaign ends?

By: Zack S.

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Google Searches Per Day Reaches 293 Million in March 2009

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Google increased its overall lead in the search engine industry, while Microsoft’s Live Search grabbed a bit more market share during March. Yahoo, Ask.com and AOL all saw slight declines.

The results from comScore mean that Google now has its largest lead in the industry ever. Of the 14.3 billion U.S. searches performed in March, Google held 63.7 percent of those. That averages out more than 293.8 million searches per day!

Yahoo continued to hold firmly to its second place in the standings with 20.5 percent of the market share. MSN Live Search has 8.3 percent of the market while Ask.com has 3.8 percent and AOL holds 3.7 percent.

Reuters first reported the story, and the original is available here.

UPDATE: We have more recent numbers for Google’s and Bing’s number of searches.

By: Zack S.

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