Not With a Bing, but a Whimper IV
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 7, 2009 at 11:00 AM PT
Looks like Bing’s steady upward trend of market share gains may have reversed itself. Microsoft’s new search engine saw its U.S. search share fall to 8.99 percent in September from 9.49 percent in August, according to figures from Hitwise (see table below; click to enlarge).
Troubling news for Microsoft (MSFT). Hitwise’s latest numbers are the second set of metrics from a Web analytics firm showing Bing’s market share in decline. Last week, StatCounter claimed Bing’s share of the U.S. search market in September had slipped to 8.5 percent from 9.6 percent in August.
As I noted then, while a month of slight decline might herald the beginning of a trend, it certainly doesn’t guarantee one–especially in search, where surges and lulls in market share are quite common. That said, this is the second set of data suggesting that Bing’s traffic may be leveling out. Whether this reflects the end of the big Bing marketing campaign or falling consumer interest remains to be seen.
Incidentally, Microsoft’s new search partner, Yahoo (YHOO), also saw its search share slip for the month, according to Hitwise. Yahoo claimed 16.96 percent in August. In September, it claimed 16.38 percent. Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) took 71.08 percent share for the month, up from 70.24 percent in August.
Comments
microsoft should know you cannot compete using the same ideas as a rival
unlike netscape, google is a service (not software or installed) and microsoft has no installed base advantage to leverage these days as it did pre-justice dept. ruling
microsoft had its run, 1981 – 2003
unless they really change the guard at microsoft…from top to bottom, then it’s same old, same old
Posted by Sam Harrison at October 7th, 2009 at 12:27 pmCan you be the most anti-Microsoft person in the world? What a terrible title for your article, so biased, as usual.
Posted by Sebastien Le Calvez at October 7th, 2009 at 1:13 pm