Comments on: Web search statistics show Bing stagnant, Google growing

By: Search wars – Past, Present and future – Bing, Google or new entrant? « How IT Works

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:29:13 +0000

[...] two behemoths, well, again, it depends who you talk to. This article puts MS Bing with 10%, while this article reckons that the previous article is all baloney and that MS Bing has 3.49%. Will we have a [...]

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:34:47 +0000

But if you use Windows 7, it tries to force you to use Bing. Microsoft doesn't want to have to compete on merits. Instead they want to lock you in.

By: ShabbaRanks

ShabbaRanks — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:31:27 +0000

@ daGUY

I have to support The Mad Hatter here as until fairly recently his unlikely sounding scenario was, in fact, true.

Thankfully, this has now changed as I’ve just done a Bing search for something that used to give very Windows-centric results. It doesn’t now.

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:43:42 +0000

daGUY,

No, it wasn’t a lie. It looks like someone realized that they looked stupid, and fixed the bias. I wasn’t the only one to report this, if you check back to when Bing launched, a lot of people noticed similar things.

By: daGUY

daGUY — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:39:37 +0000

@The Mad Hatter: “As to Bing – I’ve tried it, and it is a total disaster. Search for anything Linux or OSX related, and the search results are all Windows.”

What? I just did a search on Bing for “Mac OS X” and the word “Windows” doesn’t even appear in any of the search results until page 4, and even then, it’s for a link to download Windows Media Player for Mac.

Dislike Bing if you want, but to say that searches for OS X bring up pages of Windows-related results is a total lie that can be proven false in about 5 seconds. Honestly, why did you even bother saying something like that?

By: beanie

beanie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:06:37 +0000

I took a look at NetApplications. The sample US search engine report for August 2009 had Bing at 8.4%, Google 75.87%, and Yahoo at 11.75%. For location specific stats, you have to pay NetApplications so you can not see current stats for free.

NetApplications sample US search engine August 2009:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=127&qpmr=100&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qpaf=-000%09101%09US&clearaf=1&sample=0

So comScore stats for the US are close to NetApplications. I also looked at Hitwise and Nielsen. They also have Bing around 8%-9% of the US search volume.

Bing search volume is probably up for Oct-Nov also since there is a lot of interest in Windows 7. Google searches for Windows 7 is twice that of Windows XP. Looks like Windows 7 is a mind share hit and XP is finally dead.

By: truthseeker

truthseeker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:26:22 +0000

gus: I clicked on your link and it was the first and also last time I’ll ever use Bing. What a total POS.

By: gus2000

gus2000 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:31:40 +0000

Contest: find the shortest Bing search whose top hit is RDM, without using either the site name or author as search terms. Here’s my entry:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=stockholm+syndrome+windows

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:10:30 +0000

It doesn’t get a lot of play (in fact I get the impression that no one knows about it, but Cuil is useful sometimes. Beyond that, there really aren’t a lot of English language search engines left, and this isn’t good. It’s not that Google doesn’t do a good job, it’s just that I feel uncomfortable having that much search going through one provider. We need more search engines. And we need Yahoo to stay independent.

As to Bing – I’ve tried it, and it is a total disaster. Search for anything Linux or OSX related, and the search results are all Windows. Anyone who messes with my search results that way, doesn’t get my business.

By: Berend Schotanus

Berend Schotanus — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:57:22 +0000

Another commendable edition in your series of correcting misinformation.

It reminds me of one of the more interesting lessons in history: that about “information” in wartime. It appears to be a more or less constant fact that no army will ever admit its losses on the battlefield. German news services in 1944 have reported about ever greater victories of the proud national army with the slight complication that these victories occurred closer to home each time. And we all know the surrealistic video of the Iraqi minister of information declaring victory over America on the very same day Bagdad had to surrender.
The conclusion of historians is that an objective view on occurrences is not possible while it happens, that it takes time to reach a balanced view. But then again this conclusion might be slightly biased by the historians profession. ;-)