back to article Bing passes Yahoo! in Google runner-up stakes

Microsoft's Bing has surpassed Yahoo! to become the world's most popular search engine that isn't Google. At least for the moment. One June 4, according to data just released by StatCounter Global Stats, Bing accounted for 5.62 per cent of all worldwide searches, compared to Yahoo!'s 5.13 per cent. Meanwhile, Google grabbed a …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. JC

    But For All The Wrong Reasons

    Someone types something other than a URL in their browser pane and where do they end up? Bing.

    Which is the only search service that's been paying cash back on product purchases that have nothing to do with MS? Bing.

    Not so sure "popular" is the right word.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Bing" ?

    sounds like they are crooning about search a bit too much.

    me I prefered Bob Hope, he had a much better sense of humour.

    ( plus he was originally Ing-er-lish ;) )

  3. kit
    Thumb Down

    Bing a better search engine ?

    After reading all the positive comments on the web and install it into my Firefox . I took it to a trial run and compared it with Google's. The results were very disappointing. I just randomly input some words or phases to examined their differences. Sometimes, I just input names, regarding their spelling (might be wrong spelling). The result I got sometimes was irrelevant, and also short of contents. It did not correct my input mistakes as Google or Yahoo did. More important Bing did not able to comprehend long phases and responded only with a comment "We did not find any results for". While the result from Google were much more reasonable and more importantly 'RELATED' to my searches.

    I also compared it with Yahoo., the results were more or less the same.

    The conclusion I got. Bing does not live up to the expectation from what I read on the web, might be it is only a marketing hype.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The Internets for p0rn

    There must be a hell of a lot of perverts out there, searching for p0rnz lulz

    I know this 'cause that's what I use it [Bing] for...

    I go and get me Coat then.

  5. Nuno

    only temporary

    I, for one, can assure that I tried it, and althougt not completly disapointed, I'm not going to be a regular customer.

  6. Adair Silver badge
    Gates Horns

    Redmond knows best.

    If things are anything like they are at my place of work then most of the reason for these stats are that MS have knobbled IE's 'default search engine' settings. Suddenly I find my default default search is through 'Bing'! Where did that come from? I didn't ask for it, and it's a bugger to change, at least for most people who don't/won't go ferreting around on the web and in their settings to 'fix' it.

    The only appropriate word I think is: 'Bastards!'

  7. Craig

    Temporary...

    As much as I appreciate the benefits that Microsoft has brought to computer users worldwide, I can't help but see this news of Bing being the second most popular search engine as a little premature. Traffic will be inflated for a few days while people try out a shiny new toy, after which time traffic will drop to a more realistic level.

    Maybe I'm the one with premature comments - so far Bing does seem like an innovation to the search engine genre. It won't be long before Google copies all the good parts thereby negating any need for people to use Bing.

    I'm an Altavista fan, rarely use any other offering. Always had a lot of respect for the techs at DEC and their efforts on Altavista bore significant results. Been a long time since www.av.com appeared on search engine rankings, does it get lumped together with Yahoo results?

  8. Charles Manning
    Jobs Halo

    Wait a week or two

    Many people would have tried bing to see what the fuss is about.

    I haven't used Yawho? or MSN search or LiveSearch or whatever for years. I have though used bing to see if it is worth using, but won't use it any further.

    Like me there will be many people gibing bing a go so see what it is about, but that does not translate into anything worth crowing about.

  9. Solomon Grundy

    Not Too Bad

    It's actually not too bad.

    It does need some refinement as far a relevancy but the way it allows you to still see results while looking at a link you clicked on is pretty cool. Plus the layout is nice.

    The only thing I don't like is how it displays your recent search terms.... Could get a person into trouble.

    I'm going to use it for a while and see how it works out, I'd much rather use an MS product than Google. At least I understand and trust MS (they are straight up about being greedy bastards) whereas Google is sneaky and underhanded.

  10. Jerome

    Nice effort

    To be fair, the gains might not all be temporary. Bing is the first search engine I've tried since Google which actually works. I'm no fan of Microsoft, and I'll be sticking to Google personally since I marginally prefer their results, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bing picks up some regular traffic. Being the default search engine in IE doesn't hurt any either.

    BTW Cade, in Britain "tossed out" means "got rid of", making your final paragraph a touch confusing. The phrase you're looking for is "tossed off". :)

  11. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Bing does exactly what I would expect

    I just tried "remove bing default search":

    Google had what I was looking for in 5th place (a link to answers.yahoo.com).

    ask Jeeves has the same link in 5th place.

    Bing has nothing useful in the top ten, but does link to plenty of articles that say Bing is really popular.

  12. ken jay

    captive audience

    what a load of twaddle, how can it be said that M$ bling has surpassed yahoo excite ect when you are forced to search via it.

    i want a search engine thats not paid to push search results on how much cash you pay , i just want to search for what i am searching for with no paid ads

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ken jay

    "i just want to search for what i am searching for with no paid ads"

    and how much are you prepared to pay for an ad free search?

  14. Will

    I'm gonna use it

    As (intelligent) consumers we need to balance the market. It is the first large scale "lightweight homepage" alternative to google. The stats here speak for themselves - we need balance, even if that' means to fight one evit with another.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Honestly, this is like the hype behind calculators...

    Except with calculators the hype ended when it should have, when everyone had one and it was in the same boat as a ruler. Search engine's are tools for users, have been around since before the web, and there are enough good ones that work that coming in with one that's almost as good is just baffling. People's lack of long term memory, or knowing any of the details of the darker side of tech history, are the only reasons I can think of people aren't taking ms to task over their news of their "market presence" :P It's like the guys that made the dot.com bubble burst happen are still sitting around jerking each other off saying how great they all are because they are idea people.

    Xerox was almost destroyed when they went into the small printer market, because they payed to hype up a product line there were already at least 50 other companies firmly established doing the same thing for years.

    I use everything on Yahoo BUT the search engine, I just like another one more. It works just as well, but its like choosing between two calculators, comparing them is for the few ultra nerds who actually care and appreciate the tech underneath it (other than MS employees[who think they are super nerds, but are usually just sheep-programmers], they will probably not be fans of Bing from what I have read about it so far).

    Not to mention, this article is the first time I've even heard of Bing, and I troll the news sites almost daily.

    Oh yeah, it's a freakin search engine, who cares?? The real news is where does MS plan to go from there? Yahoo actually offers a lot to it's users, and so does Google, for free mind you. What novel thing could MS actually do that isn't already on the net in another more secure form? I think they're just trying to scare the executives at yahoo or something, not many people are employed anymore that have the intelligence to tell them to let MS waste their energy and money on this, and see if it doesn't end up like every other big idea they come up with that isn't bought or stolen from another company.

    Ah well, why should things change, this is all the same stuff that's always gone on. Get people who don't know better to all think the same thing. And if I hear one person say Bing! to me, I swear I'll go crazy! ;-P

    Mine's the one that says, "Stop the ride, I want off!!"

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Because it's MS ...

    Phase two is probably advertising via Bing discounted if the ads use Silverlight. I don't like to think about phase three, but basically it involves brain surgery and robot monkeys.

  17. Vincent

    Flawed paid for results

    There is a major flaw in the business model me think.

    To the right of the first natural results is an 'expanded' result box. I can see the point of it but the displayed text is quite not relevant and have no clue how their algo built it, so it need major improvements.

    However the point is that it completely hides the paid for search result!

    As an advertiser, would that infuriate me? Guess...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ad revenue

    This is great news! What we need is Bing to get about the same market share as Google. Then those there will be competition in the online advertising market again, resulting in lower prices, and Google's revenue will drop to something reasonable. At the moment Google are fast becoming a monopoly.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ba da bing...Big Badass Boom?

    I like what ms has done with bing. I'm guessing "bing" is meant to be taken as it was on the school yard... "bing".... as in eureka or a light going on and the answer found. Maybe this variant meaning of bing didn't make it to the far side of the pond. If search engine rankings are taken from the majority of users and not the fastidious power users then I think what is to be looked for is something akin to Aristotelian catharsis, i.e. resolution to conflict with enhanced status or happiness (something weird like that)... Google offers a kindergarten interface and near universal brand recognition. MS, in my opinion, is going after Google in a bright way with an uber clean interface that promises a bright and shiny, "bing" answer to life's status monkey questions. I think they've headed off in the right direction.

  20. divakars sathyagraha
    Happy

    Microsoft - Time For Some Divine Intervention

    As somebody who wishes the good folks at MS well, it seems what Shri Ballmer really needs to do is break some coconuts for the God Ganesa and do some other things that I detail in my post to help MS get out this Little Train That Could role its gotten into.

    To propitiate the Gods and protect your enterprise from the wrath of entropy your esteemed readers may be pleased to visit http://spriteleesathya.blogspot.com/2009/05/human-frailty-microsoft-style.html

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Google bings and microsoft rides on high waves

    http://sashayz.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/google-bings-and-microsoft-rides-on-high-waves/

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Bing back down to #3 (and dropping)

    Bing had a momentary spike above Yahoo on 4 June 09.

    Why?

    A mere $100M spent in advertising could have something to do with it.

    Of course, by 5 June ... before this article was published ... Bing's numbers were back below Yahoo. Too bad that didn't make the cut for this article.

    -hh

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like