Bing: and what it means for your business

— Published August 6th, 2009  |  by Niamh Phelan

According to a referring search engines report* in Google Analytics, for a week in late July 2009:

• Bing came very close to catching up with Yahoo's share of search
• Prior to June, GA didn't recognise Bing as a search engine, but the growth through June has been significant
• It is worth noting that the Irish experience is significantly different to that in America

(*The report was based on the Irish sites we monitor).

And according to Bloomberg:

"Microsoft's share of US searches rose to 8.4 percent in June from 8 percent in May, according to Reston, Virginia-based ComScore. Yahoo ranked second, dropping to 19.6 percent from 20.1 percent. Google maintained its dominance, accounting for 65 percent of searches, unchanged from May."

How are Microsoft doing well in a Google-dominated market?

Bing has been made the default search box in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, giving them a nice chunk to start with.

Plus, searches from the MSN.com homepage are also now channeled to Bing, as illustrated by the drop-off in searches from MSN.

Before Bing's launch, searches on MSN had been quite stable - earlier this year, they were consistently about 2% on the sites we monitor.

Let's get down to it - is Bing any good?

Reports on the Bing user experience have been good for the most part. There are some nice features, such as previews of site content on the search results page.

In our own in-house trial, Bing couldn't find the information we wanted, so it is not yet fit for purpose. But search engines take some time to "learn" the Internet, so it may be too early to judge it on those merits yet

Bing's innovations

Bing displays links to related search engines on the left of the search results page.

And Microsoft refer to it in places as a decision engine, rather than a decision support search engine.

From a systems research point of view, this would imply that the system makes the decision for you - which is not the case.

Some of Bing's features could be indicative of an early-stage decision support search engine, but the advances have hardly been groundbreaking.

Bing would also need to make further improvements to data visualisation, a characteristic of decision support systems, in order to bear the decision engine label more accurately.

But Bing's advances, however small, are welcome - as is the competition it poses to Google and other engines.

Considering the obscure keywords that refer traffic to websites we monitor, and their corresponding 50+% bounce rates, it's clear that search technology has a long way to go before it can reflect true accuracy.

Why have Microsoft released a search tool when they already had MSN?

Many believe that Bing was introduced as a means of eroding Yahoo's market share, following Yahoo rejecting Microsoft's bid of $31 a share last year - a deal that would have been worth $45 billion.

Bing's growth has eroded Yahoo's market share more than that of any other major search engine. And Microsoft's tactics appear to have been effective -- Yahoo entered into a 10 year partnership with Microsoft only last week.

Between the launch of Bing, the recession, and now this new deal, things don't look good for Yahoo as a real search contender, despite its continued prevalence in some markets, particularly Asia.

Under the agreement, Microsoft are to maintain the search technology for both companies, while Yahoo will focus on advertising and content. As there was no acquisition, Yahoo did not get a cash injection, and they've lost control of the search technology that made them in the first place.

Considering Google's domination of the market, Microsoft and Yahoo's partnership should facilitate competition, not prevent it. Google's dominance is so pronounced that together Microsoft and Yahoo will still have significant work ahead to make an impact (face it: it's hard to imagine anyone 'yahooing' or 'binging' something).

What impact is Bing having on ad spend?

Not a significant one - Google maintain a 77% share of ad spend in America, and this grew during Q2 2009.

Should you consider Bing in your own web analytics?

Well, first off, Microsoft Advertising doesn't currently have a Bing pay-per-click offering for Ireland. We are not, as we should be, on the forefront of such things.

But even when this does become available, I wouldn't go shifting too much ad spend yet.

As of last week, Google was still the search engine of choice in by far the most searches that ended up on the Irish sites we monitor.

However, if you focus on the long tail with your Google ad spend, or you find yourself being out-bidded for particularly profitable keywords (like, say, 'hotel dublin') then advertising on alternative search engines like Bing, that are not yet targeted by your competition, could prove a worthwhile investment.