Microsoft is gaining ground on its rivals in the search market. In June, Microsoft had 8.4 percent of online searches in the United States, according to comScore, up from eight percent in May.
Bing seems to be making the difference. Although some observers have predicted Bing would steal market share from Google, comScore’s latest data shows that Microsoft grabbed searchers from Yahoo. Yahoo’s market share dropped slightly, from 20.1 percent in May to 19.6 percent in June. Google held steady at 65 percent.
“Given all the publicity and advertising around Bing, we were expecting a month-on-month increase,” said Citi analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note. “But we think it’s too early — need three to four months to call a trend — and the June move wasn’t material enough to make any definitive statements as to whether Bing is a search-market-share game changer. We continue to view Bing as a very solid product, but one facing a very large uphill battle.”
The Paid Search Scene
Despite its gains in the search-engine wars, Bing didn’t make much impact on Microsoft’s share of the U.S. paid search advertising market in the second quarter.
While Microsoft’s share of spending remained flat, Yahoo lost share to Google, which continues to dominate the search landscape, taking in 77 percent of paid search spending in the second quarter, according to a new report from SearchIgnite, whose search-optimization technology manages more than $350 million in paid search annually.
“Microsoft appears to be focusing its efforts on driving consumer interest and capturing increased search-query share,” said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite. “We have not yet seen this translate into more paid search advertising dollars for Microsoft, although typically consumer adoption precedes advertiser adoption.”
Wait-and-See Mode
The SearchIgnite report also reveals that retailers were a key driver of the paid search market in the second quarter,…