Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 17:41 UTC
Google "If the last two months should be interpreted as Microsoft suggests, with Bing's gradual ascent in usage share against Google as a sign of Bing's inevitably catching up, then a similar interpretation of September's numbers from live analytics firm StatCounter should be taken as a sign of Bing's ultimate demise. A sampling of five billion or more US page views from Web sites accessed by StatCounter in September reveals that, of the world's top three search services, Google's usage share has climbed back just above 80%, and is flirting with last November's peak of 81.14% -- meaning Google is back to serving four out of five US-based general queries. Bing's usage share in the US descended by 1.13% to 8.51% for the month of September, while Yahoo's dove 1.1% to 9.4%. Google's share among the top three has now climbed above where it stood in May (78.72%), when Microsoft changed the name of Windows Live Search."
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Might be me...
by nathbeadle on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 17:54 UTC
nathbeadle
Member since:
2006-08-08

But I've always enjoyed those times when Microsoft speaks out for a technology of theirs or against someone else's .... and then a few months later they get proven wrong.

They always seem to quick to praise things without really letting time get on their side. Within two months of Bing they were already saying "the people have spoken" and "we're on our way up". Should have waited just a few more months!

Reply Score: 7

RE: Might be me...
by Kroc on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 18:28 UTC in reply to "Might be me..."
Kroc Member since:
2005-11-10

Bing only got where it was because of the massive brand-hammer coming down. They’ve changed *every* search box in every site and product of theirs to point to Bing. Live, HoTMaiL, Messenger, MSDN/Microsoft.com—_everything_.

Only a handful of tech reviewers actually *used* Bing, the rest were 301’s coming in from other large areas of unsuspecting users.

I tell you now, it won’t be long until it’s renamed Bing Mail. Watch this space.

Reply Score: 5

RE[2]: Might be me...
by Lennie on Sun 4th Oct 2009 13:15 UTC in reply to "RE: Might be me..."
Lennie Member since:
2007-09-22

Let me guess, that hammer coming down is creating the noice: bing, bing, bing. ;-)

Reply Score: 2

tomcat
Member since:
2006-01-06

... way of estimating market share and, frankly, I don't welcome Google dominance because (a) it artificially sets advertising rates higher than they would be with other competitors in the market, and (b) Microsoft is actually doing some pretty innovative work with Bing 2.0 that seems to go beyond a lot of what Google is doing. Haven't we all learned this lesson: Competition=good. Monopolies=bad.

Reply Score: 3

WorknMan Member since:
2005-11-13

and (b) Microsoft is actually doing some pretty innovative work with Bing 2.0 that seems to go beyond a lot of what Google is doing.


How so? I'm not disagreeing with you, but just curious. Bing seems to me like MS trying to fix something that isn't broken. It's like Google has gotten huge, so MS wants to piss in their pool. I mean, is there a problem with Google that MS is trying to solve, or is it just MS wanting a piece of the search pie?

Reply Score: 6

satan666 Member since:
2008-04-18

Haven't we all learned this lesson: Competition=good. Monopolies=bad.

I completely agree. That's why Microsoft should go to hell. That's why anybody that has a clue about IT should fight Microsoft. I mean Joe SixPack goes to the store and buys a computer. That happens to be preloaded with Windows. OK, he has no clue about operating systems. But everybody else should fight Microsoft until it gets bellow 50% market share. I give Google credit for creating Android because it is based on Linux. And I'll wait and see how their ChromeOS project pans out. If Google manages to make Linux popular, then I am willing to forgive them for their search dominance. It doesn't really bother me that Google charges more for ads but I am upset when I try to buy a laptop and I have to spend extra energy to avoid the Microsoft tax.

Reply Score: 6

renhoek Member since:
2007-04-29

Market share is not the problem, i can be perfectly happy with a 100% market share with windows. The problem is I am forced to use windows in many circumstances, and I am not using it because it's a superior product.

People should be promoting open standards and let the best man win. I even think this should be enforced by law, because a vendor lockin is really easy with a proprietary format. This leads to anti-competitive behavior which is as far as i know illegal.

Google and Bing is a different story since i can switch at any time i please with little impact.

Reply Score: 2

Bing is for pr0n
by kragil on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 18:40 UTC
kragil
Member since:
2006-01-04

That is MS' intended use, isn't it?

Reply Score: 5

Terrible Design
by jrash on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 19:02 UTC
jrash
Member since:
2008-10-28

Bing looks like a friggin' Netster squatter site, and that "b" icon looks ridiculous.

Reply Score: 3

Bling
by richmassena on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 19:18 UTC
richmassena
Member since:
2006-11-26

This is how long it took for the naive users to figure out how to reset IE8 default search to Google.

Reply Score: 17

Comment by izomiac
by izomiac on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 19:30 UTC
izomiac
Member since:
2006-07-26

While I still strongly prefer Google, Bing does seem to give pretty good (sometimes better) results, which is surprising since Google has my search history to go off of. OTOH, Microsoft is having to penetrate a market where the competitor's product name is basically synonymous with the action. It's quite similar to what Firefox and Macintosh dealt with, and Linux is currently dealing with. Microsoft will likely either need to sink tons of money into marketing or tons into development since I doubt they'll make much headway unless the common computer user perceives Bing to be significantly better than Google.

BTW, there's a typo in the summary that was copy/pasted from the linked article. The phrase "while Yahoo's dove 1.1% to 9.4%" makes no sense. It seems to originate from the original article, which states "Yahoo! which also declined, to 9.40% from 10.50%". The author of the linked article apparently moved the decimal place, then rounded. Not realizing his/her mistake the author then forgot the meaning of the word "from" and described the reduction as a "dive" when it's really more of a "decimation" if a 10% reduction needs emphasis. I'm not sure why the author didn't notice the misplaced decimal, a mass exodus (90%) of Yahoo!'s user base would be a far more significant story if it were true.

Reply Score: 1

RE: Comment by izomiac
by siride on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 19:47 UTC in reply to "Comment by izomiac"
siride Member since:
2006-01-02

The decrease itself wasn't 1.1% of the marketshare, but rather the marketshare value went down 1.1 units, where the units are percents.

Reply Score: 2

RE: Comment by izomiac
by DrillSgt on Sat 3rd Oct 2009 15:53 UTC in reply to "Comment by izomiac"
DrillSgt Member since:
2005-12-02

BTW, there's a typo in the summary that was copy/pasted from the linked article. The phrase "while Yahoo's dove 1.1% to 9.4%" makes no sense. It seems to originate from the original article, which states "Yahoo! which also declined, to 9.40% from 10.50%".


Umm..those 2 phrases say the exact same thing, with no misplaced decimal points. "dove 1.1% to 9.4%" in standard English would mean that it went from 10.5% to 9.4%, which is exactly what the article states, and is meant by the phrase "Yahoo! which also declined, to 9.40% from 10.50%". Unless you know another form of English? Maybe the phrases mean different things in British versus American English? That of course is quite possible. I am going off of American English.

Reply Score: 2

RE[2]: Comment by izomiac
by Bobthearch on Sat 3rd Oct 2009 16:05 UTC in reply to "RE: Comment by izomiac"
Bobthearch Member since:
2006-01-27

Didn't take long to figure out the original meaning of the sentence, but it didn't read smoothly and should have been more concise:

"...Yahoo's dove 1.1%, from 10.50% to 9.40%.

Reply Score: 2

Comment by chmxjc
by chmxjc on Fri 2nd Oct 2009 21:13 UTC
chmxjc
Member since:
2009-06-11

I tried Bing once and it didn't give me the links I needed. I've never used it since, if Google ever went down(very unlikely) and I really needed to look for something on the internet I would rater us Ask than Bing(Yahoo).

Reply Score: 1

Jeeves
by tobyv on Sat 3rd Oct 2009 07:16 UTC
tobyv
Member since:
2008-08-25

"Goog" and "Bing" are just another passing internet fad.

AskJeeves will rise again!

Reply Score: 4

RE: Jeeves
by Lumbergh on Sat 3rd Oct 2009 15:03 UTC in reply to "Jeeves"
Lumbergh Member since:
2005-06-29

"Google" and "Bing" are just another passing internet fad.

Like pockets...pockets...sheesh.

Reply Score: 2

RE[2]: Jeeves
by gfolkert on Sun 4th Oct 2009 16:01 UTC in reply to "RE: Jeeves"
gfolkert Member since:
2008-12-15

"Google" and "Bing" are just another passing internet fad.

Like pockets...pockets...sheesh.


And pants!

Reply Score: 1

RE[3]: Jeeves
by Quake on Mon 5th Oct 2009 17:37 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Jeeves"
Quake Member since:
2005-10-14

""Google" and "Bing" are just another passing internet fad.

Like pockets...pockets...sheesh.


And pants!
"
Don't forget to zip up your pants, the crawlers might get in...

Reply Score: 1

RE: Jeeves
by Soulbender on Mon 5th Oct 2009 01:53 UTC in reply to "Jeeves"
Soulbender Member since:
2005-08-18

Bah! Webcrawler FTW!

Reply Score: 2