Why Bing! Is Not Google? A Market Share Comparison

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In the present market scenario, there's an unhealthy tug of war going on amid the several search engine giants. Unhealthy, because, there's one competitor running away with a huge market share. That competitor, Google, has left others like Yahoo! and Bing! in his shade as if it were Usain Bolt sprinting past your everyday John. But what makes it walk in a class of it's own? Are the others indeed incompetent comparatively or is it prevalent public prejudice that lands Google favors?




Microsoft, having seen it's Live Search flop badly, decided to come up with a efficient and powerful search engine that could give Google a stiff fight. That's when the Bing! came into being. To get one over Google's simple, bland white home page, Bing! incorporated an eye catching and attractive image on it's home page. This image is changed daily to reflect Bing! dramatic dynamism. Now comes the fun part which in my opinion is legen-wait for it-dary. To rival the witty Google Doodles, Microsoft has intricately placed 'hotspots' on the background image. These hotspots, when the mouse is hovered over them, reveal information boxes about the image and tell something special about them.

Enough of the minute non-issues and straight to the business end. A search engine is supposed to provide optimized search results for your queries that may aid you the best. This is a section where Google just trumps Bing! by a country mile. Here is an image, courtesy 'How Stuff Works' that compares the results page when 'How Bing Works' is searched.

Though I laughed out really loud at Google's prompt of 'how bong works', one only needs to compare the obtained results to gauge Google's supremacy of searching to one's needs.

When one talks about market share, it goes without saying that Google is miles ahead of it's closest rivals, but why not convey the same with some lovely graphs? (Data Courtesy : searchengineland.com)

Though Google is miles ahead, Bing! has toppled Yahoo! as Google's prime rival. Though these figures are quite dated, they come from a reliable source and it would not be outrageous to assume similar trends continuing currently. However, there has been one startling development !

Microsoft has agreed a 10-yr deal with Yahoo! to power it's search in return for expert technological help and inputs on Bing! along with Yahoo!. Given this coalition, their combined market share has jumped up to a respectable amount and given the prospective combined growth, they might give Google a scare. But a scare is the most they can give, as Google, given it's current supremacy and rapid strides in technology, should rebuild a huge lead over their coalition as well. So, in my opinion, Google is here to stay at the very top for the foreseeable future.