August 18th, 2009
Bing gains search share on Yahoo, Google
Microsoft’s Bing search engine maintained momentum in July and gained a bit on both Google and Yahoo.
According to comScore data (Techmeme), as relayed by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Google wound up with July search share of 64.7 percent, down from 65 percent in June. Microsoft was up to 8.9 percent in July, up from 8.4 percent in June.
Now these incremental gains don’t signal a huge trend or anything, but they could add up over time. The more important item may be overall search trend growth. Here’s what Munster said:
Bottom line is we view yesterday’s comScore data to represent a potential headwind to Google’s Q3, but note that paid click data will give a more accurate representation of the search marketplace. Google’s total U.S. queries were down 4% m/m and up 21% y/y in July, which is the slowest y/y increase in queries reported by comScore data since 2005. We note that Google’s monthly U.S. query total, as well as the overall U.S. query volume, has trended down m/m for the past three months following all time highs in April.
If Bing continues to gain share it will present an interesting wrinkle to the Microsoft-Yahoo search pact. Consider the following:
- Microsoft continues to gain share on Yahoo;
- The Microsoft-Yahoo pact takes two-years to implement and perhaps longer if regulators have problems with the deal;
- Advertisers migrate to Microsoft today (from Yahoo) since it will have the ad platform going forward;
- Regulators can the Microsoft-Yahoo deal;
- Microsoft wins anyway.
Simply put, the paid click data later this month is more important. Nice start for Bing though.
Also see: It’s official: Microsoft-Yahoo ink 10-year search pact; Regulator scrum begins
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Smart Planet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 08/18/09
