Research by ComScore and Experian Hitwise has revealed the slow changes that are taking place in the search engine market. Bing through its aggressive strategy has gained market share while Yahoo! showed a decline. Google as expected has also gained market share.
According to Experian Hitwise Microsoft achieved a market of 9.57%, whereas Google and Yahoo! lost 1% to end up with 70.60% and 16.14% respectively. The report by Comscore suggested that Google’s share went to 65.4% October from 64.9% in September. Microsoft went from 9.4% to 9.9% and Yahoo! dropped from 18.8% to 18%. Though the estimates in each study vary slightly, the bigger picture is becoming more apparent. Google’s monopoly is being threatened ever so slightly and Bing is creeping to public consciousness.
Microsoft has shown steady growth over the last 5 months since its launch. The deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft to collaborate in search engine operation is set to close early next year. The 10 year agreement points to growing market share to Bing and splitting ad revenue between the two companies. This partnership is expected to grow Bing’s market share to 30%. How much this will threaten Google is still a question that hangs in the air.
When Bing was launched it received a very tepid response. It was expected to be another failure. Since then, Bing has moved from being just another attempt at beating Google to becoming a worthy opponent. Bing had also recently partnered with Wolfram Alpha, a computational search engine. The addition though labeled as a “geeky” service has added to Bing’s product image. Facebook and Twitter are now integrated into Bing as well. Video and image search is a lot more user-friendly compared to Google and SEO experts now have a new avenue to explore through the visual search offered on Bing.
Microsoft has announced its “Windows Theme Experience and Windows Personalization Gallery in Windows 7”. This is a radically new area into which internet based advertising will move to. Users will have to option to choose a branded theme which they are passionate about. Ducati, Porsche and Twentieth Century Fox have already entered this market. Users can download their favorite themes and convert their desktops into a branded experience.
Though Google hasn’t changed its UI dramatically and offered a snazzy Bing-like interface, it has kept re-inventing its back end infrastructure. Users are very familiar to the “plain-jane” interface Google offers. Any changes to the UI are not expected anytime soon. However subtler changes are becoming apparent with the integration of the Caffeine search algorithm. Search results will now include video and image results on the first page of Google results. Results will become more and more relevant to the keyword searched.
Google stock has risen by $4.23 to end at $576.28 at closing on November 16th, the highest in the last year and a half. This only goes to show the trust of the public in Google’s product. Microsoft’s efforts to topple Google will have to a long drawn battle and they should expect a very tough fight.
The good news for advertisers from this increased competition between the two giants is plain to see. More options, better platforms and ever improving quality in the product. Prices will tend to be controlled as the competition fights it out as well.