comScore has put out its monthly search engine rankings for the United States, looking at the month of November. Google sites made up 67% of explicit core search queries conducted, up 0.1% from October, according to the firm. Explicit core search excludes contextually driven searches that don’t reflect specific user intent to interact with search results.
Microsoft sites were up 0.2% at 16.2% of queries, and Yahoo sites were down 0.1% at 12.1%. Ask Network was behind Yahoo with 3% of queries (down 0.2%), and AOL followed with 1.7% (down 0.1%).
There were about 17 billion explicit core searches performed in November, according to comScore. Google sites accounted for 11.4 billion of them. Microsoft sites accounted for 2.7 billion searches, and Yahoo accounted for 2.1 billion. Ask had 506 million, and AOL had 297 million. Again, this is just the U.S.
Of course, Yahoo is actually powered by Microsoft’s Bing. comScore says that in November, 69.4% of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 25.4% of searches were powered by Bing (up 0.4 percentage points).
Earlier this week, NORAD released a Windows 8 version of its popular Santa tracker app just in time for the holidays. Now it appears that Windows 8 won’t be the only contribution to NORAD’s annual tradition as Bing is now getting in on the holiday fun.
Search Engine Land reports that Bing is supplying the maps for NORAD’s Santa tracker this year. It replaces Google Maps which has powered the tracker since 2007. Microsoft is a big sponsor this year as well with prominent displays for not only Bing Maps, but Windows Azure as well, on the corporate sponsors page.
It doesn’t appear that Microsoft moseyed its way in and kicked Google out though. In a statement to Search Engine Land, a NORAD spokesperson said that it and Google “mutually agreed to go in new directions.” Microsoft saw a chance and moved in offering Bing Maps, Windows Azure cloud hosting and related services to power the Santa tracker.
That being said, Microsoft isn’t wasting its newfound spot at the forefront of one of the most popular holiday traditions in the US. On the official NORAD page for Santa tracker apps, the Windows Phone app is listed ahead of the iOS and Android apps. The Windows 8 app gets its own special area as well.
As for the actual Santa tracking service itself, not much is going to change. The only difference is that Bing Maps lacks the built-in 3D viewing experience that Google Earth offered. For that, you will have to use Cesium, a 3D earth app built on WebGL.
If the lack of Google Maps has you feeling blue, you can always remind yourself of a better time. A time when Google produced a search tips rap with the big man himself:
Bing announced today that it has redesigned the social sidebar, the third column of the three-column design it launched for its search results pages earlier this year.
“Today we’re rolling a new streamlined design for our social sidebar feature making it easier to find people who are relevant to your search based on what they’ve shared, publically blogged or tweeted about,” says Bing. “In a glance you can now see friends, experts and enthusiasts from leading networks including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Klout have shared. While the sidebar will remain off to the right of search results – allowing you to decide when and how to interact with it – we’ve made some changes to the design.”
Users no longer have to hover over a friend or expert to see additional content. Bing will now show the content, marked as social results. They’ve also justified the results so there is less blank space on the page. Additionally, they’ve added a “+ see all” icon that lets you get more info.
The Xbox 360 is quickly turning into a bastion of Microsoft products and services. The gaming console already has Internet Explorer and Bing, but now it’s getting Microsoft’s cloud service – SkyDrive.
Microsoft announced this morning that SkyDrive will be available on Xbox 360 later today. Much like the SkyDrive app for Windows 8, the Xbox 360 app puts the focus on photos and videos. It’s for the rare creature that wants to share their photos on their large HDTV for the whole family to see. It’s a modern rendition of going to your aunt’s house to see her vacation slides, but now you can play some Halo 4 deathmatch with her after the slideshow is over.
Microsoft lists three key features that it feels make SkyDrive for Xbox 360 a perfect fit for the living room:
Shared photos & videos. Share a meaningful event with your friends or family by viewing photos & videos on your TV, or view photos & videos others have shared with you through SkyDrive. Imagine being able to view cherished photos and videos shared by friends and family —like a musical performance, a kid’s birthday, or baby’s first steps—on your TV.
Snap and see. For Windows Phone users, snap a picture and see it appear almost immediately in your camera roll on the big screen. This feels like magic! For example, you could take a quick snapshot of your child making a funny face, fire up the SkyDrive app on your Xbox, and view it right away on your 50” screen. Just make sure you’re using the same Microsoft account sign-in for both Xbox LIVE and your Windows Phone.
Party slide show. Plan a great slide show to play in the background of a dinner party. For example, you could start a slide show of a recent trip for friends, or have holiday-themed photos and videos playing during a holiday party.
The “Snap and see” feature is only available on Windows Phone at the moment, but it’s likely that Microsoft will patch in support for Android and iOS at a later date. It ported SmartGlass to the other two mobile operating systems shortly after it hit Windows Phone so the wait shouldn’t be that long.
There’s been a strong push lately to turn the Xbox 360 into more of an entertainment machine. Microsoft wants to take over the living room and have its console be the only device that you’ll ever need. Not everybody will use SkyDrive, but it’s just one more step towards having a fully functional PC in the living room that just so happens to only use Microsoft products and services.
Bing announced today that it is adding a couple new types of information to the middle column of its three-column design: people and landmarks.
Earlier this year, Bing launched the new design. The middle column (which Bing refers to as “Snapshot”) has historically let you look at info like maps and reviews, without having to click over to another site or part of Bing.
“Now when you search for a famous person, celebrity or place, we will present relevant facts about that person in the center part of the screen so you can quickly find what you’re looking for without having to click through to another site or page,” Bing says in a blog post.
“We’ve now expanded the snapshot to cover famous people and places as well as made updates to include different sources including reviews and new modes of interaction,” Bing adds “Right on the main results page, you can make more informed decisions about topics related to people.”
Bing will now show a summary of current info for celebrities (such as recent movies, albums, related celebrities, etc. It will also point you to trailers, music previews, and purchase options.
“Last week we launched the ‘Scroogled’ campaign to educate average people about what Google has done with their shopping site. Instead of showing you the most relevant shopping search results for the video game you’re looking to buy your kid, Google Shopping now decides what to show you based partially on how much the merchant selling the product has paid them. Merchants can literally pay to improve their chances to display their products higher than others inside of Google’s shopping “search,” even if it’s not less expensive for you. In that spirit, today we are releasing a new holiday themed animated video to help spread the word about what’s going on:”
Bing noted when the campaign launched that it was about Scrooge, rather than “getting screwed by Google,” but here we do hear that it’s not pronounced “Scrooge-led,” but more like “Screw-gled”.
Remember Socl? It’s a social network that Microsoft Research launched in beta a while back. It was initially for students, but in May, they launched it to the public. Now it is out with a new design and something called “me pages,” which are essentially profile pages.
“What began with a focus on social search for students and learning has evolved to be a service where people connect over shared interests expressed through beautiful posts,” Microsoft says in an email about the product.
Socl was spotted back in November, originally under the name Tulalip, and then Microsoft officially announced it in December, as a way to give students a new way to learn. It was initially made available to students at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University. Here’s what it ended up looking like eventually:
Here’s what it looks like now:
Microsoft is encouraging those who have signed up for the service in the past to “come get your ‘me page’.” That would look something like this:
Bing’s Duane Forrester noted back in May that So.cl is not included in Bing’s social graph. It least it wasn’t at the time.
Last week, Bing launched the Don’t Get Scroogled campaign, bad-mouthing Google Shopping. After being called out in the press for its own practices, Bing is now blasting Google again. This time, it’s about Google’s reaction to the Scroogled campaign.
The Bing Team writes on its blog today, “How did Google respond? They distributed a statement praising their service. They highlighted how great products look on Google Shopping without really explaining how the products get there in the first place. They did not contradict or argue any of the facts and information we laid out. The silence is disappointing given how important this issue is to consumers and the online industry as a whole.”
“In short, Google’s silence is pretty clear acknowledgement of the changes they have made to introduce pay-to-rank to their system,” the team adds.
Bing then takes the opportunity to talks about how it “differs” from Google Shopping:
Unlike Google Shopping, we will not take money to boost a merchant’s rank in our shopping search results. In short, we don’t do pay-to-rank. Where we do have ads, we label them clearly as ads.
While Google has purged Google shopping of each and every free listing, we continue to have well over a hundred million product offers listed for free from merchants across the nation, and new products and offers come in to Bing shopping daily at no cost to merchants who established themselves with us before the holiday season.
As in the past, we are not accepting new merchants during the holiday season, because we want to maintain the integrity of our system for consumers during the holiday rush. But we will re-open the system to new merchants and their free listings in January, as we did last year.
We do take product feeds from 3rd party companies who charge merchants for syndication across internet shopping sites, but the fact that a merchant has paid to be included in that syndicated feed does not affect the position of that merchant’s offer in Bing Shopping’s search results. It’s only a part of the larger set of databases we draw from.
“How can consumers know what’s paid and what’s not? If that’s the issue Bing is concerned about, it not only fails to explain this at Bing Shopping but worse suggests that payment isn’t involved, when it is,” Sullivan writes, before drilling into “Bing’s pay-to-play program”. Sullivan spoke with Bing’s Stefan Weitz:
“There’s paid inclusion and there’s pay-to-rank,” Weitz said. “That’s a far different scenario than having to pay Google to be there,” he explained.
The point Weitz’s is trying to make is that with Google, if you don’t pay, you have no chance of ranking at all, because you don’t get included at all. With Bing Shopping, paying is one way of being included, but not the only way, so he doesn’t count that as a ranking factor.
Google, by the way, maintains that it isn’t giving merchants top rankings just because they paid more, which is contrary to the claim by Bing that Google is “selling their shopping results to a high bidder”.
Last week, Bing got the Internet’s attention with its latest campaign against Google: the “Don’t Get Scroogled” campaign. This, of course, followed the Bing It On campaign launched earlier this year, which encourages people to engage in a blind taste test, comparing Google and Bing results.
Now, Bing has launched the “Bing It On Holiday Search Challenge“. It’s pretty much the Bing It On challenge, but it has been dressed up for the holidays, and gives people the chance to win a “Microsoft Box of Awesome” (Windows Phone 8, Xbox 360 with Kinect, Windows 8 device) or a $10,000 paid trip to any place in the U.S.
“Launched earlier in the Fall, the Bing It On Challenge is an online tool that makes it easy for you to compare Bing and Google’s web search results,” Bing says in a blog post. “The challenge is simple – within the tool you search for five search queries of your choice and compare unbranded web search results from Bing and Google side-by-side. For each search result, you choose a winner, or declare it a ‘draw’. After you complete your five search queries and vote for each one, we show you the final score. You can then share the Bing It On Challenge with others via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.”
For the holiday challenge, Bing suggests searching for things like “how to make homemade eggnog” or “ice skating rink”.
This week, Bing launched an attack campaign against Google, called “Don’t Get Scroogled“. It’s a dig at Google Shopping, the product of Google’s recent transition from the free-to-list product search offering to a paid inclusion, ad-based Google Shopping model. Bing insists “Scroogled” is about Scrooge, rather than implying that people are getting “screwed by Google,” as the word would suggest, and as the Urban Dictionary definition would imply. Right.
Either way, that makes little difference, as the message would essentially be the same. Is Bing right? Are users getting “Scroogled” by Google? Let us know what you think.
Google’s move to the paid inclusion model of Google Shopping has certainly not been without its controversy. Most of this, however, has stemmed from businesses who aren’t happy with the move. Bing’s campaign is painting the whole thing as harmful to consumers (go figure, given Microsoft’s participation in efforts to pressure regulators in antitrust matters regarding Google). But do users really feel they’re being harmed by this model?
“Specifically, we want to alert you to what Google has done with their shopping site right in time for Christmas,” explains Bing’s Chief Marketing Officer and Corporate Vice President, Mike Nichols. “Instead of showing you the most relevant shopping search results for the latest coffee maker you’re looking to buy mom, Google Shopping now decides what to show you – and how prominently to display what product offers they show — based partially on how much the merchant selling the product has paid them. Merchants can literally pay to improve their chances to display their product offers higher than others inside of Google’s shopping ‘search,’ even if it’s not better or cheaper for the consumer. The result of this new ‘pay-to-rank’ system is that it’s easy for consumers to mistake an ad for an honest search. That’s not right, it’s misleading. It’s not what you expect from search, and it’s not how we at Bing think search engines should help consumers get the best prices and selection when shopping.”
“In short, we think that too many shoppers who use Google for their shopping searches are getting ‘Scroogled’ when they should be getting fair, honest, open search. It’s like Ebenezer Scrooge met Google Shopping. We think consumers should be aware what they’re seeing when they’re shopping online and to understand, without any hidden text or traps, the fine print of what their ‘search engine’ actually searches.”
Despite these comments, Bing was almost immediately blasted in the tech media for its own Shopping results.
“Bing, after all, recently partnered with eBay’s Shopping.com,” writes Frederic Lardinois at TechCrunch. “While Bing previously allowed merchants to submit their own feeds for inclusion, the company now says that it is ‘not accepting new merchants for this program.’ Instead, Bing says, merchants should work with Shopping.com. One of the reasons for this according to Bing is that ‘paid offers will be highlighted throughout Bing Shopping, including search result and product pages.’”
Lardinois also shares a statement from Bing’s senior director, Stefan Weitz: “Bing includes millions of free listings from merchants and rankings are determined entirely by which products are most relevant to your query. While merchants can pay fees for inclusion on our 3rd party shopping sites and subsequently may appear in Bing Shopping through partnerships we have, we do not rank merchants higher based on who pays us, nor do we let merchants pay to have their product offers placed higher in Bing Shopping’s search results.”
Google has said that ranking is based on a combination of relevance and bid price.
“Google now wants to break the rules that made it a trusted brand,” says Nichols. “They argue that the difference between answers and ads is shrinking. ‘After all,’ they recently said, ‘ads are just more answers to users’ queries.’”
“Shoppers visit the site they have used for years, conduct what they think is a ‘search,’ and get a set of rankings that look like the objective results Google delivers elsewhere,” he says. “Meanwhile, the lawyers at Google are now calling it a ‘listing.’ They even call out – hidden behind a disclaimer or buried in a footer — ‘Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results.’ Consumers are potentially getting a raw deal because ‘relevance’ is now influenced by how much Google is getting paid, not just by things that matter to shoppers. We, of course, accept enhanced listings and advertisements just like other search engines. But at Bing, we just feel Google should distinguish ads clearly from search results and not use payment as a factor in ranking shopping search results.’”
On Google’s regular search results pages, when Shopping results do appear, they are clearly marked as “sponsored”. It is true that any disclaimer is a little less obvious when you actually go to Google Shopping, the destination. This disclaimer Nichols mentioned is found if you click on the link at the top of Shopping search results page, which says, “Why these products?”
It probably doesn’t help Google’s case that there is a set of more traditional-looking search ads at the bottom, which say something like, “Ads related to waffle irons”.
But on the other hand, I’m not sure consumers have ever cared so much about whether or not product search results were paid inclusion or not. It would be interesting to know how many shoppers are starting their product searches from the Google Shopping destination anyway. If you search for “waffle irons” on Google.com (which seems like a far more likely scenario than starting from google.com/shopping – even if you search Google for “Google shopping” you’re taken to google.com/ads/shopping), the top results are ads, followed by a set of results from Google Shopping, which are clearly marked as sponsored. The first organic results take you to places like Amazon, BestBuy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc.
Google, of course, maintains that the paid inclusion model works better for quality of results.
“We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date,” said Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping. “Higher quality data—whether it’s accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability—should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants.”
We’ve discussed the issues businesses have with Google Shopping multiple times in the past. That’s one thing. As a consumer, do you think you’re betting “Scroogled” by Google Shopping? Will you use Bing Shopping? Let us know in the comments.
Microsoft announced today that it has added over 121 TB of satellite and Global Ortho imagery to Bing Maps and the Windows 8 Maps app. The maps offerings now include over 15 million square kilometers of new data mostly covering South America, Africa, Asia and Europe, though there is some additional imagery in North America and Australia.
Following are some areas Microsoft is highlighting.
Laguna Chacaico, Argentina
Republic of the Congo
Ambohipaky, Madagascar
Coco, Costa Rica
“Our latest release of Global Ortho imagery includes 69 blocks and covers over 800,000 sq km,” Bing says. “In total, we have published 10,777,300 square kilometers covering 100% of the United States and 83% of Western Europe! The Global Ortho project is nearing completion with only 4% remaining to be published.”
Microsoft has also refreshed its Europe and U.S. desktop themes. There are now over 200 images for the U.S. and 175 for Europe, compatible with both Windows 7 and Windows 8.
As you may know, Google recently transitioned to a paid inclusion model for shopping results. The results, tied to Google’s Product Listing Ads are collectively known as Google Shopping, which has replaced the Google Product Search of old. Bing, in its latest attack on Google, has launched the “Don’t Get Scroogled” campaign in response.
“Merchants must now pay Google to be listed in the shopping results, and how much they pay helps determine how they appear in the rankings, so now every ‘result’ is really just an ad,” a Bing spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Unfortunately most consumers are unaware of this change because the disclaimers are not easily discoverable.”
Well, if you spot them from a regular Google search, they do say “sponsored”. It is a little less obvious when you go to the actual Google Shopping destination, but that does include a link above the results, which says: “Why these products?” When clicked, the user is presented with text that says, “Products and offers that match your query. Google is compensated by these merchants. Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results.”
Nevertheless, Bing says its “Don’t Get Scroogled” campaign is designed to “educate” holiday shoppers about Google’s “unfair ‘pay-to-rank’ shopping practices”.
“Bing thinks it is important for consumers to trust the search engine they’re relying on will honestly show them the best products and deals, and not the information merchants paid to show up in the results,” the Bing spokesperson says. “That’s why Bing is committed to delivering comprehensive, unbiased search results and won’t let paid ads or services affect results.”
According to Bing’s landing page for the campaign, one who has been “scroogled” may look like this:
Or this:
And of course, there’s a video:
The landing page comes with the following message from Bing:
In the beginning, Google preached, “Don’t be evil”—but that changed on May 31, 2012. That’s when Google Shopping announced a new initiative. Simply put, all of their shopping results are now paid ads.
In their under-the-radar announcement, Google admits they’ve now built “a purely commercial model” that delivers listings ranked by “bid price.” Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results. They call these “Product Listing Ads” a “truly great search.”
We say that when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled. For an honest search result, try Bing.
Don’t get Scroogled this holiday season.
It’s good to know that Bing found everything Google did until that date to be on the up and up, or at least not completely evil. I’m not sure about the “under the radar” part. Google has made plenty of announcements about the transition. We’ve covered the product numerous times.
The page also calls on people to vent on Bing’s Facebook page about how they’ve been “scroogled.”
“Owned by Google”, or “screwed by Google”, or even “pwned by Google”. The word is created by combining “screwed” and “Google”. The meaning implies that Google (its search engine, Gmail, and other services) is constantly spying on its users. Coined by Cory Doctorow in his fiction-story “Scroogled”, written for the RADAR magazine (www.radaronline.com).
Another definition from the same source:
What happens when Google Maps takes you to a trailer park with a sign that read “Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.” instead of the Starbucks you had been searching for.
Update: Bing tells us, “It’s about Scrooge.”
Bing has put up a blog post about the campaign, which says, “In short, we think that too many shoppers who use Google for their shopping searches are getting “Scroogled” when they should be getting fair, honest, open search. It’s like Ebenezer Scrooge met Google Shopping. We think consumers should be aware what they’re seeing when they’re shopping online and to understand, without any hidden text or traps, the fine print of what their ‘search engine’ actually searches.”
I’m sure the “screwed” thing never entered their minds.
Brace yourselves: the year-end lists are coming. As 2012 comes to close, it’s vital that we all take a step back and review all of the inane crap we seek out on search engines. First up, it’s Bing with a nice comprehensive 2012 search overview.
Congratulations, Kim Kardashian. You’re the most-searched person of the year.
According to Bing, she beat out Justin Bieber, who held the title for 2011. The Biebs holds strong this year, coming in at #2. The rest of the top ten is as follows, in order: Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Lindsay Lohan, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, Nicki Minaj, and Taylor Swift. You may notice a few glaring omissions from that lists – notably Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who happened to be running for the nation’s highest office this year. In our celeb-crazed culture, the President and his challenger only managed to break the top 50, coming in at 46th and 43rd, respectively.
As far as the most-searched news stories of the year, the iPhone 5 takes it down. The rest of the top ten looks like this: 2012 Elections, 2012 Olympics, Hurricane Sandy, Honey Boo Boo, Gangnam Style Dance, KONY 2012, Academy Awards, Kindle Fire HD, and Facebook IPO.
And when you look at social networks and apps, Facebook was the most popular search followed closely by Twitter. MySpace, which is soon launching a big redesign, came in third. Three of the top five app searches involved streaming music (Pandora, I Heart Radio, and Spotify).
When it comes to culture, there are no big surprises. PSY’s “Gangnam Style” was the most-searched song of 2012, followed by Carly Rae Jespen’s “Call Me Maybe” and Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend.” The Avengers was the most-searched movie, followed by The Dark Knight Rises and Titanic.
Bing has a pretty substantial breakdown across many categories, including fashion, holiday icons, celeb couples, and more. You can check out their full report here.
Microsoft has made some pretty impressive strides in translation over the past few years, and the company’s research has been implemented into the Bing Translator App. Microsoft boasts that it’s one of the most popular translation apps on Windows Phone 7 devices, and now Windows Phone 8 users can see how good it is for themselves.
The Bing Team announced that the Bing Translator App is available on Windows Phone 8 devices. The app has all of the features that you’ve come to expect from any translation app including augmented reality translation, speech/text translation, and an offline mode for when you’re traveling in areas without service.
What does the app bring to Windows Phone 8 users? The Bing Team says that the app now features a new translator lens that will bring up the AR translation functionality immediately. Just like in previous incarnations of WIndows Phone, the Bing Translator App also retains the word of the day live tile for those who are fond of linguistics.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the team as they were building the new version of the Bing Translator app.
You can grab the Bing Translator App from the Windows Phone 8 store right now. There’s no Google Translate app on Windows Phone 8 yet, but did you really expect there to be?
Bing announced that, like Google, it now has its own set of Webmaster Guidelines.
“As we update these guidelines over time, we’ll post notices here at the blog to let folks know to review the changes,” says Bing’s Duane Forrester. “Changes should be infrequent as these current Webmaster Guidelines cover most major topics. They are not exhaustive and you should not expect to find deep, technical answers in them. They are intended to help most business owners understand the broad strokes of search marketing.”
The guidelines can be found in Bing’s Webmaster Help center under Content Guidelines. There are sections on: 404-Pages Best Practices, Link Building, Marking Up Your Site with Structured Data, Markup: People and Markup: Products and Offers.
Pay attention to these, and maybe you can avoid getting hit by some future Bing version of the Penguin update (though if you follow Google’s, which have been in place for years (though they have been updated), you’ll most likely be safe in Bing too. Still, something about Bing’s guidelines seem less threatening.
For example, here’s the section on link buying from Bing’s:
You may choose to buy a link from a trusted website. This is your choice, but you should know that as Bing begins to see a pattern of links from one website turning off each month, then new ones showing up for a month or so from the same domain to new websites, we begin to understand the website is selling links. Thus, any links leaving that website will be suspect. Search engines are very good at seeing patterns so think carefully before purchasing a link in search of elevated rankings.
That said, buying a link on a busy website can bring you direct traffic, so it does remain a valid marketing tactic. Just be careful how often you employ this tactic lest Bing form the impression you’re buying links to try to influence your organic rankings.
Bing also has a series of Webmaster webinars coming up. Check out the blog post for the schedule.
Experian Hitwise has released new data about the search market in the UK, indicating that Google’s share has fallen below 90% in the country.
Google’s market share for the month was 89.33%. That’s the first time in as much as five years that Google has dropped below 90% in the United Kingdom, according to the firm. Here’s a look at the numbers:
“As Google’s market share dropped it was a positive month for Microsoft, Yahoo!, Ask and the all Other search engines monitored by Experian Hitwise,” writes James Murray on the firm’s UK blog. “Microsoft Sites, led by the bing engine increased market share by 0.72% up to 4.71% of all searches. This was a 2012 peak for Microsoft which was also ahead by 0.86% year-on-year.”
“October saw the launch of Windows 8 with Bing set as the default search engine which may have gone some way to increasing Microsoft’s market share,” Murray adds. “Online searches for Windows 8 increased by 120% throughout October showing the increased online interest for Microsoft’s new operating system. As search continues to diversify however, the market is likely to continue to shift and change.”
It will be interesting to watch, not only in the UK, but everywhere else, especially in light of recent developments on the Bing front.
There are still 18 times more searches conducted on Google sites in the UK than on all of the other search engines combined.
Bing is known for its cool photos that serve as the backdrop for the homepage. They change every day, and are mostly unrelated to any current news, anniversary, or holiday (with some exceptions). For the most part, they’re simply cool images that spruce up the search box. Bing says that users have been asking for a quick, easy way to download the images so they can use them for their personal wallpaper.
Now, that’s a reality. Starting today (in the U.S.), users can click on a download icon at the bottom right-hand side of the image and a high-res version of the image will now be theirs to use in whatever way they please. Although the downloaded image removes the Bing search box and other noise, a Bing watermark is still present at the bottom right corner.
In order to download the image, Bing says that you have to connect with Facebook. Other than pushing the Bing/Facebook partnership, there’s really no other reason for this. It’s not pushing the activity to your Timeline or anything.
Bing has also put another button in that bottom right-hand corner, an intersecting arrows icon that lets you take the image fullscreen (which gets rid of everything except for the actual search bar).
The Yahoo Bing Network has been rolling out in seven new markets in Europe and six in Latin America, bringing the total to 22 countries.
“As we recently reported, search engine marketing continues to grow as a proportion of digital ad budgets, and the Yahoo! Bing Network is outpacing the competition on key metrics like click-through rate,” says the Yahoo advertising team in a blog post. “The most recent comScore numbers are also telling when looking at the Buying Power Index (BPI) — which is a measure of purchase behavior — for all searchers on Yahoo! and Bing.”
“According to comScore, searchers on the Yahoo! Bing Network are likely to spend 123% more than the average Internet searcher,” the team adds. “The worldwide BPI for Yahoo! and Bing searchers who don’t use Google (that’s 83 million, by the way!) is even more dramatic, with spending levels 317% more than the average Internet searcher. So with the Yahoo! Bing Network, you don’t have to search hard to find the highest quality audience in the world!”
October has been a huge month for Microsoft, and it’s going to be interesting to see how the company’s new products and implementations inspire Bing use.
Is Bing poised to make a bigger dent in Google’s share of the search market? Do you intend to use Bing with Microsoft’s new products? Do you intend to use Microsoft’s new products at all? Let us know in the comments.
Last Friday, Microsoft launched Windows 8 into the wild. I won’t get into all the bells and whistles of that here. Read this, and determine if you think it’s worth the upgrade.
One thing is for certain though. There are still a lot of Windows users out there, and there are many will make the upgrade simply because it’s the latest version, and others will simply purchase devices that come with the operating system installed. This is a chance for Bing to thrust itself upon users in a flashy new way. Bing resides on the Windows 8 Start menu by default. Sure you can change it, but how many people are that passionate about the search engine they use, and how many simply won’t bother to use Google instead?
There is a standard Bing app for web search and image search, a Travel app, a Weather app, a News app, a Finance app and a Sports app. Some Facebook users (of which there are 1.01 billion), might be exposed to Bing’s social features for the first time, and find that appealing. They may like seeing their friends as they’re searching, and stick with BIng.
“Searching with the Bing app is fast and fluid, whether you use a touch device to tap and swipe or type and click with a keyboard and mouse,” says Brian MacDonald, Corporate Vice President, Online Service Division for Microsoft. “Finger-friendly results and images are front and center letting you quickly find what you’re looking for, so you can search less and do more. You can still rely on the same great Bing web experience in Internet Explorer 10, but we’ve optimized the Bing app to shine on Windows 8.”
“The Maps app makes it easy to find the places you’re looking for and helps you get there faster,” adds MacDonald. “Quickly pinpoint locations, get directions, see traffic conditions and more— all designed to be easily navigable with touch.”
The Weather app gives you a preview of the current weather and the hourly, daily, and 10-day forecasts. For the Finance, News, Travel and Sports apps (collectively referred to as the Bing media apps), Bing has partnered with brands like ABC, AP, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet, Reuters and complete daily editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Microsoft refers to the experience as a built-in newsstand. The Sports app offers headlines, live scores, schedules, standings, stats, etc., and lets you personalize it based on the teams you care about.
It comes with a feature called “For You,” which offeres personalized recommendations for deals, restaurants, music, videos, etc. based on a person’s location, previous searches and recommendations from Facebook friends.
There’s also a feature called “Local Scout,” which provides recommendations for nearby restaurants, shopping and various activities in a Bing-powered guide.
“Whether you’re looking for the best brunch or live music in your area, it’s all a tap away,” the company explains. “Simply pick a result and you’ll see everything you need to know – where it’s located, how to get there, who to call, when it’s open, the website, and even ratings and reviews. Local Scout includes eat+drink, see+do, shop, local deals and the new for you experience.”
Bing Explore is a feature that lets you swipe the Bing home page across to see content that it has deemed relevant to you, including trending stories, local deals, etc.
The lock screen image on Windows Phone 8 automatically retrieves the image of the day from the BIng home page, so this will provide a constant reminder that you’re a Bing user.
Bing Music on Windows 8 has a larger catalogue, and Microsoft says it’s easier to find out what song is playing by letting your phone “listen” to music. The Shazam-like feature will show you the name, artist and album, as well as where to buy it or hear it.
Bing search results will return Windows Phone Store apps that are relevant to searching. “For example, when you search for movie times, Bing will show you several of the top movie apps,” Bing says. “Bing also powers search for both apps and games in the Store. This system has also been rolled out to Windows Phone 7.x devices.”
Finally, with Bing Vision, you can use your phone’s camera to look up product info by bringing the object into view. Bing recognizes text and presents the option to select words for a search and return product results if there is a bar code. It can also read UPC codes, QR codes and Microsoft Tag, and cover art for CDs, DVDs and video games. There is a also a translation feature which you can use to translate text you come across while traveling.
Then there’s Xbox, which could be one of the greatest assets Microsoft has in terms of having an edge over Google. Google does not have a competitor to Xbox. Xbox 360 sales recently surpassed 70 million units, and we’re just getting into the holiday season this year.
Bing first came to Xbox last year, but was missing the key web search feature. The new update means people can use Bing from the Xbox just like they can from the desktop. Sure Google has Google TV as a living room weapon, but come on. We’re talking about Xbox here. Microsoft said in its announcement:
“Not only have the overall voice recognition capabilities and accuracy of Bing on Xbox been improved, but we’ve also added the following features to help refine your searches even further. Search the Web from Your TV: With the addition of “Internet Explorer,” you can now search across the web, as well as the content on your Xbox, to find the most relevant results. Bing on Xbox also searches YouTube for web original video. So, if you’re searching for a film with Jason Statham, you not only get results for his movies from within Xbox, but you can also view related web content within the same search.”
Bing also provides the search for the new Xbox Music service, and Microsoft has added the ability to search movies by genre.
On top of all of that, they’ve expanded Bing on Xbox to more countries, including: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, France, Canada (FR), Ireland, Japan, Austria and Switzerland (FR and German).
Now, I’m not saying all of this is going to come together and instantly put Micosoft ahead of Google in search. That’s just silly. However, I do believe the company is making some rather important moves that could lead to an uptick in its market share, and perhaps make Bing more relevant than it has been since it launched.
Microsoft has hardly toned down the marketing since it launched the search engine with a huge advertising budget. Now people know what Bing is, and Microsoft is putting it out there more than ever. Microsoft also has some major new products with its Windows 8 and WIndows Phone 8 operating systems, which will not hurt Bing’s chances of picking up some new users, even if Google is still a click (or a tap) away.
Of course people have to buy the devices (like the new Surface) for this Bing strategy to even try to come together, but that includes Windows PCs, and of course Xboxes. Let’s put it this way: none of this is likely to make Bing lose users.
Also, remember this: Bing doesn’t have to keep people from using Google all the time to get them using Bing more.
What do you think? Is Bing on the verge of taking a bigger piece of the search market? Let us know what you think.
Yahoo slammed Microsoft today over its use of “Do Not Track” by default in Internet Explorer 10. This is interesting on several levels, but most notably because Yahoo and MIcrosoft are partners in search and advertising. Together, they have put together the Yahoo Bing Network. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
This close relationship the two companies have developed in recent years (officially called a “search alliance”) has not stopped Yahoo from taking a public shot at its partner in a post on its Privacy blog (h/t: Kara Swisher).
“At Yahoo!, we aspire to make the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining,” the post begins. “Our users have come to expect a personalized Yahoo! experience tailor-made for their lives — whether they’re checking local weather, sports scores, stock quotes, daily news, or viewing ads on our site. We fundamentally believe that the online experience is better when it is personalized.”
“That said, we also believe that there should be an easy and transparent way for users to express their privacy preferences to Yahoo!,” it continues. “That’s why we offer our own tools and resources such as Ad Interest Manager, to give users more control over personalized advertising on Yahoo!, and why we participate in industry-wide programs such as AdChoices, which allows users to learn why they’ve been shown an ad.”
Then the calling out begins.
“Yahoo! has been working with our partners in the Internet industry to come up with a standard that allows users to opt out of certain website analytics and ad targeting,” Yahoo says. “In principle, we support ‘Do Not Track’ (DNT). Unfortunately, because discussions have not yet resulted in a final standard for how to implement DNT, the current DNT signal can easily be abused. Recently, Microsoft unilaterally decided to turn on DNT in Internet Explorer 10 by default, rather than at users’ direction. In our view, this degrades the experience for the majority of users and makes it hard to deliver on our value proposition to them. It basically means that the DNT signal from IE10 doesn’t express user intent.” Emphasis ours.
“Ultimately, we believe that DNT must map to user intent — not to the intent of one browser creator, plug-in writer, or third-party software service,” says Yahoo. “Therefore, although Yahoo! will continue to offer Ad Interest Manager and other tools, we will not recognize IE10’s default DNT signal on Yahoo! properties at this time.
Partners can have disagreements and continue to work together, but you have to wonder if the relationship between these two companies is going south. There were already rumors going around that the their partnership might not last for its entire decade run.
