Can Bing Beat Google?

Techtree.com lists some interesting stats on search-engine market share:

According to data from Hitwise, Bing grew at a weekly rate of 25 per cent during June and managed to capture 5.25 per cent of the total US market for the month.

Hitwise boasts of providing "insights on how 10 million U.S. Internet users interact with more than 1 million Websites." As per Hitwise, Google maintains the search market dominance with larger 74 per cent share in US Internet search in June. Yahoo was on second place with 16 percent share and Ask.com came on fourth with 3.2 % as per Hitwise.

So Bing has gradually grown to compete with the Google but the challenge is still in pretty nascent stage. Bing itself requires bit of tweaking. Ever since its launch, lot of enthusiasts and Windows Live Search fans have been trying it out. Of course, the initial spike is bound to be there.

According to ComScore's data from June 8 to 12, Google enjoyed the lion share of 65 per cent in search engine market of US Internet Search. On the other hand, Microsoft's share spiked from 11.3 percent during Bing's debut to 12.1 percent.

I’m glad to see that Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing is taking off so well. I’ve been a loyal Google (GOOG) user for about a decade, but I always root for more competition in just about everything. Competition breeds innovation, better pricing, and improved user experiences. (at least in theory!)

One important feature Bing has that Google lacks is Bing Cashback, which allows you to earn cash back from shopping. Sometimes you can get a pretty nice percentage back – they just ran a promotion where you can get 12% cash back from Overstock.com (OSTK).

I’ve noticed in my own blogs that Bing is generating more hits for me than Microsoft’s Live Search ever did. Bing doesn’t send me nearly as much traffic as Google, and I’ve seen a recent spike in activity from Yahoo! (YHOO) because of my high search ranking on Lenny Dykstra. But it’s definitely a step above what I ever got from Live.

Well done, Microsoft. You don’t have Google killed but you’re off to a great start!