Chicago (IL) – If we believe Internet analysis companies, then Microsoft apparently could not have asked for a more successful launch of its new search engine. While the actual percentage estimates of Bing’s market share vary dramatically, it seems that Bing may have surpassed Yahoo’s share already.
A report released by StatCounter suggests that Bing had 16.3% market share yesterday, topping Yahoo 10.2% but behind Google with 71.5%. The huge share may be somewhat expected, due to the surrounding media frenzy and Microsoft’s intent to spend about $80 to $100 million to promote the search engine. However, the simple fact that Yahoo has been surpassed already is an impressive achievement, even if we do not know whether Microsoft can sustain the momentum.
StatCounter is not the only firm that tracks the market share of search engines, but it is the only so far that sees Bing leading over Yahoo. Net Applications, for example, stated, the Bing rocketed to a 6% markets hare within hours after launch, closing in on Yahoo, which was estimated by the firm to have held 9.4% in May. Net Applications’ charts indicated that Yahoo’s and Google’s shares have not been impacted by Bing’s launch. However, Live Search’ market share dropped almost immediately from 3.5% to less than 1% and MSN Search, which held about 2.9% in Net Applications’ charts before Bing’s launch, is virtually non-existent.
The actual markets hare seems to be pure speculation at this time, with StatCounter suggesting that Bing has taken over market share from its rivals, while Net Applications indicates that the share has simply shifted from other Microsoft properties, while the gains from Yahoo and Google were only minor.
