Bing Finds The Bloom Is Off the Rose
According to Internet analytics firm StatCounter, Bing's share of the U.S. search market declined by more than 1 percentage point, Bing's share of the U.S. search market in September fell by more than 1 percent to 8.51 percent from 9.64 percent in August. Third place Yahoo also saw a slide in market share, falling to 9.40 percent from 10.50 percent in the same period.
"The trend has been downwards for Bing since mid- August," Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, said in a statement. "The wheels haven't fallen off, but the underlying trend must be a little worrying for Microsoft."
Perennial leader Google saw its market share climb more than 2 percent to 80.08 percent in September from 77.83 percent in August.
On a global basis, Bing saw a slight decrease, inching down to 3.25 percent from 3.58 percent. Yahoo also saw a slight market share decline, falling to 4.37 percent from 4.84 percent. Meanwhile, Google still led the pack, but only climbed from 90 percent to 90.54 percent.
Another Web analytics firm, Net Applications also calculated that globally Bing lost market share in the same period, falling to 3.39 percent share, while Yahoo only fell 0.44 percent finishing at 6.84 percent. Google also lost market share, according to the company, declining to 83.13 percent.
Meanwhile, Google has been far from complacent and has continued to roll out new search tools. On Thursday, the company added nine new features to its Search Options solution that helps users winnow search returns to more specific answers. The new features return results taken from the past hour; specific date range; more shopping sites; fewer shopping sites; pages that have already been visited; pages that have not been visited; books; blogs and news.