Jun
Microsoft back with a BING?
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Is Microsoft back in internet search with the new web search service BING?
The biggest buzz in the search/web/internet domains from the past couple of days has been Microsoft Bing! It has been deemed by some as better than Google, by others as comparable to google and by a few the engine which will dethrone Google. I will give such big claims a rest and in this post I will emphasize on how BING can create a bang in the search market space and bring Microsoft live again in the market!
Search, as you know, is a big upsurging industry (yes, even today it is) and the giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have been fighting to improve their share in the market. Microsoft has been eyeing opportunities to improve the user percentage since more than a year now. It started with huge investments in the MS Live search engine. Lets us step back and see what Google has done to the definition of information retrival over the internet! Google created a path breaking search engine which fractured the market space completely and turned it around to its favor. If we divide according to user space, roughly 70% people use Google, 20% people use Yahoo and around 10% use the Live Search. Google changed the whole scene, much to the jitters of Yahoo and Microsoft. Let us now see what Microsoft Bing can do?
Bing has received positive response from critics and a lot of attention from experts. Coveted to be a “decision engine”, Bing is no less than Google infact some would go ahead and suggest that it better than Google. Such claims are subjective to people. But I would like to point that even if Bing is better than Google it will need a lot of visibility, campaign and effort to beat the giant Google. It will be a long time for Bing to beat Google.
If you think so Microsoft has launched Bing to beat Google, you are WRONG! Bing is a harbinger of change for Microsoft and the search market will shake & shuffle but for now, Bing is contesting for the second spot (Yahoo) and not the first (Google). Let me remind you, in the March of 2008, Microsoft flexed its muscles to buy Yahoo and merge it with Live search in a bid to compete with Google. It failed miserably much to respite of Google! But now, what I see is at the end of an year, Microsoft has developed a fantastic service which will surely eat up share from both Google and Yahoo. I feel Bing will quickly be the second player in the search market, and a tough competition to beat.
Search Engine experts state that Yahoo has always been the “alternative” to queries for which Google did not produce relevant/satisfying results. Rarely, do people use Yahoo as their first choice of search engine. Bing, can easily be the next Yahoo, i.e. the next “alternative”. But I doubt it can beat Google so easily. Why? It has nothing to do with what Google/Bing can or cannot do. Its about behavioural psychology; its just that, Google is now a habit. It will be difficult for so many people to migrate from Google to Bing which although is great but not path breakingly different from Google!
Nonetheless, it is a win-win situation for Microsoft as they gain market space. I think counterparts at Google and Yahoo can feel the BING even now. Who knows BING might get Microsoft a bargain from Yahoo for a buyout in the coming time!! Personally I feel, Bing will surely BANG. Please post you comments below.
Disclaimer: All the views presented are personal (I hope I have been rational as well) and Microsoft does not endorse views presented above. (I am an employee of Microsoft you see!)
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30 Responses to “Microsoft back with a BING?”
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Nice analysis!
I can see now, Bing can take over Yahoo easily but surely Google is a long time to go.
very well written!
I think it is too early to comment. Surely Bing has better features than Msn Live Search but will it beat Yahoo! for 2nd spot, not sure. One will have to see where do people who use Yahoo! Search come from? Maybe they are on Yahoo! Sites and just use Yahoo! Search because of convenience.
Still Bing is a nice attempt (much better than acquiring Yahoo!). A theory says that in an industry with 3 major players, if 2 merge then the player which does not merges actually gains, so in a sense Google might have gained if Yahoo! Search and Live Search merged. Lets see what Bing brings to the table … will need to wait for like a month to get actual results (too much hype right now on the subject)
Well, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/05/did-bing-just-leapfrog-yahoo-search/
TechCrunch Article saying Bing has overtaken Yahoo! Search for now as the 2nd most used search engine
Spot on Gaurav!
@ shubham
?
Fantastic revelation there! Has strat.in just trumped techcrunch analysers in forecasting
@Shubham: It was sort of expected, and as the article mentions it might just be that a lot of people are trying, but I think that in the long run Bing will surely overtake Yahoo!
@Siddhesh: We will have to do this consistently
I agree. The big question now is whether Microsoft will take a big chunk out of Yahoo’s paid search revenue, as mentioned here: Does Microsoft Big Change Paid Search.
Marco,
True, the dynamics of paid search work on a different line but I believe over the long run Bing should change paid search scenario as well!
Bing will innovate itself in the period to come. It will interesting to see what Yahoo and Google do to revive their search engine!
its true that Google has become a behavioural psychology. Not a day goes by without google.
Bing has a long way to beat Google.
its true that Google has become a behavioural psychology. Not a day goes by without google.
Bing has a long way to go, to beat Google.
Yes, infact people dislike “change” in services/product that are doing well for them. It takes a lot of effort to move masses from a simple service (let aside one like Google) to another service.
But as Winston Churchill once said “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”.
Before Bing’s launch, we were discussing how much will you pay for a service like google search … We felt that a lot of users maybe willing to pay a premium for the search feature. Perhaps you can explore that aspect of the search engine market sometime in the future. Will consumers be willing to pay for the services they are addicted to – such as facebook, search etc?
Yes BING according to Me Bing Is Not Google
This BUZZ will surely help Microsoft to gain user base, but frankly speaking not going affect Google much….Lets see
@ Siddhesh: Yes I will pay a nominal fee for search (I mean personal usage) if Google/others start charging. But, Google has created a new ecosystem of business, moving out of which can be catastrophic for Google brand as a whole. Google service = free brilliant services for end user! An interesting thing is “Will Google ever charge for its services?”
@Ketan: Why do you feel Bing is not Google? Lets discuss it.
On a lighter note: Why is Bing a really good engine?
Search for “Microsoft back with a BING?” i.e. the title of this post, on both Google and Bing!
Bing: This blog is returned as the 4th results
Google: This blog is not indexed in the first 3 pages!
The difference is quite visible! Isnt it?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Microsofts-Bing-gains-marketshare-from-Google/articleshow/4669821.cms
Bing gains marketshare from Google
Great discovery Chandrima
Bing has gained initial ground but the question is how do they build on it!
Bing did well but, but too little too late – and as Gaurav said they don’t expect to be # 1 yet, in fact low double digit share will be a victory for them.
You need to do exponentially better in order to take a dominant # 1. Think Gmail giving out 1GB just before Hotmail was rolling out a paid 20MB mailbox!! Moreover, Google will react fast and then MSFT will take years to react again!
Exactly Saad! There is a big distance between Google and Bing (in terms of market share) which can be (if) covered in leaps and not steps! None-the-less life is surely better for an end user with more options to choose from!
I see one point that is not too stressed on in the blog, Bing being a decision engine. As Ballmer says, Bing is going to help users to make better decisions. They target specific segments along the time line like, Shopping, Medicine, Education etc.
So we need to look out how bing performs shopping and related segments in near future, as they claim that is what Microsoft targets.
The other thing what Bing might miss on, is the extraordinary integration Google has with its mail, search history and search engine.
It will take lot of time time for Bing to enter this state if it wants to.
Well I leave rest of the stuff for time to tell about the success of Bing, just being little patriotic
by calling it a success.
Honestly, I don’t see Bing overtaking Yahoo! just yet. Excitement about everything new is expected. (Prophetic predictions about Cuil were made as well. Similar, about PowerSet which MS bought to power Bing.)
True Shantanu! There is a lot of excitement and a lot of possibilities discussed here. But in the initial phases, BING has taken up user share from both Google and Yahoo!
@ Aditya: Yes Bing is a decision engine, but the stress of this blog was on the strategic changes Bing brings in the search engine domain rather than the services Bing provides!
And yes the Google personalization is really engaging a lot of their user base.
Absolutely early forecasting Gaurav that Bing will take a lot of time to beat google.Techcrunch just confirms it http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/25/study-suggests-people-prefer-bings-design-to-googles-but-still-wont-switch/
I guess brand loyalty matters a lot!!
Statistics counter on Google v/s Bing v/s Yahoo from 2nd June to 29th June
http://gs.statcounter.com/#search_engine-US-daily-20090601-20090629
Microsoft Bing would be the closet competitor of Google. but i still use Google because it shows more relevant results on the serp.
i have been evaluating the search results of Microsoft Bing compared to Google and they are comparable. Bing gives almost the same relevant search results just like Google.