Early Results: Bing Helps Microsoft Make Gains In Search

Microsoft search sites increased their daily penetration among U.S. searchers to 15.5 percent during the June 2-6 time period from 13.8 percent during the May 26-30 period, according to comScore. The company said that indicates that Bing is reaching more people than Live Search, Bing's predecessor.

ComScore also said that Microsoft's share of search results pages in the U.S., which the research firm described as a proxy for overall search intensity, increased from 9.1 percent to 11.1 percent during the same time period.

"These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate-term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," said Mike Hurt, comScore senior vice president, in a statement.

"The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users," Hurt said. "It appears it is off to a good start."