What will it take for Bing to out-Google Google and actually get people to say “Bing it” instead of “Google it”? Bing, or rather its parent company, the software giant Microsoft, is going all out in its bid for search engine land domination, splashing millions of dollars on marketing its search baby.
Microsoft is whipping up a storm of publicity gimmicks for Bing, the latest of which is paying a hundred bucks each to 5 lucky winners just to get people to follow Bing on Twitter. The move is seen as just another ploy to lure people to check out the search engine’s newly unveiled social features. There’s also Bing’s not-so-subtle product placements in several YouTube videos (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, etc). Reports say Microsoft spends $100 million dollars per year on marketing the two-year-old Bing.
The war between the two search engines is continuously changing the search engine landscape as we know it. Microsoft, obviously hell bent on becoming the Lord of the Searches, was even accused of stealing Google’s searches.
The good thing is, Microsoft’s efforts seem to be working. Bing clinched 30.01% of the market share of U.S. search engine in March, according to web analytics company, Experian Hitwise. Out of this figure, 14.32% was from Bing.com and 15.69% from Yahoo (now powered by Bing). Since Bing assumed control of Yahoo Search, its numbers surged from just a mere 9.87% back in August.
Google still dominates the market share at 64.42%, but luck seems to be not on the side of the search engine king lately as its figures are slipping. March’s numbers were down from 66.69% in February. Google’s current numbers are down by 10% from August 2010, when it enjoyed 71.59% of the market share.
ComScore’s search engine rankings for January and February 2011 also shows Bing’s steady growth. Google’s numbers slipped by -0.2, while Bing upped by 0.5.
Bing’s team-up with social network giant Facebook to give web users a more social experience is also working in its favor. Bing’s search results include Facebook “Likes” which show what Bing users’ friends think about certain results. Not to be outdone, Google upped the ante with its own “+1” button. Whenever Google users search the web, they can simply click on the “+1” button and see what pages or content their friends have “Liked.”
In terms of revenue, however, Google is winning while Bing is losing. Google reported a gross revenue of $8.58 billion and net income of $2.3 for the first quarter of 2011. Bing, on the other hand, has a run-rate of $2.5 billion, but is estimated to be spending $5.5 billion yearly while chasing a $3 billion revenue. Microsoft doesn’t seem to care, however, as long as Bing continues to advance in the search engine rankings.
Will Bing eventually kill Google? It’s doubtful that the current numbers are causing Google to lose (too much) sleep, but Mashable predicts that Bing could overtake Google in maybe as little as a year if it continues to step up its marketing efforts, and Google’s performance continues to decline. We shall see.
About the author: Matt Fuller offers article services relating to a number of topics ranging from social media, singles chat rooms, social networking news, casual dating and relationships, dating tips and online dating sites reviews.
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