Web search statistics show Bing stagnant, Google growing

article thumbnail

Following a press release from ComScore indicating that Microsoft has approached 10% market share with Bing, more comprehensive search statistics indicate that Bing's growth and share of web search is being wildly overstated.

ComScore's October "US Core Search" rankings made headlines in suggesting that Microsoft's Bing, combined with the company's other search properties, have incrementally amassed a significant share of US search, now at 9.9%.

However, ComScore's press release points out in small type that "searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers."

Microsoft doesn't have a big share of the mapping, local directory, and user generated search market. By removing this from its "core" rankings, ComScore greatly inflates Bing's importance, because the vast majority search related to maps, local search, and "user generated video" (why not just say "YouTube") are all owned by Google. Microsoft's own "Soapbox" effort to match Google's YouTube failed and was shut down in August after a three year run.

When looking at more neutral statistics that don't gerrymander figures to arrive at a desired conclusion, the facts are very different.




Over the last two years since, Google has continued to gain share while Yahoo's dropped to the current figure of 6.7% and Microsoft's Bing, MSN and Live Search combined amounted to just 3.5% of the global web search market.



Latest News