comScore releases early data on Bing

At last, it seems there is serious competition in the search world, with comScore reporting Bing is off to a good start. But will the novelty wear off or is Bing here to stay?

by Helen Leggatt

bing logo.jpg Some very preliminary data from comScore shows that Microsoft Sites increased daily penetration among US searchers from 13.8% in the week commencing May 26 to 15.5% the following week. Not only that, but Microsoft's share of search engine results also jumped, from 9.1% to 11.1% in the same period.

"These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," said Mike Hurt, senior VP at comScore.

Microsoft has for some time been stuck in third place behind Google and Yahoo. In April, its share of US search queries was 8.2%, according to comScore, compared with 64.2% for Google and 20.4% for Yahoo.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz isn't being swept away by the hype and buzz. Speaking at the Bank of America's 2009 Merrill Lynch technology conference she said she doubted Bing would gain traction.

"I don't know if Bing means a whole lot to Yahoo. I think people will go to Bing because they are curious. I think they will get some uplift, but people will keep their same habits," she said.