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Microsoft overtakes Yahoo in U.S. search market
Microsoft's Bing search engine surpassed Yahoo for the first time even in December, according to data from ComScore. Although it was a narrow win, capturing 15.1% of the U.S. search traffic versus 14.5% for Yahoo, it's still a significant milestone for the company that puts them in second place behind Google. It remains a tough battle to the top, however, as Google remains distant with a whopping 65.9% of the market.
More than 18.2 billion core searches were run last month, a 2% gain from November. Google served up 12 billion of those, followed by Microsoft with 2.7 billion and Yahoo with 2.6 billion.
Microsoft forged a 10-year agreement to provide search technology to Yahoo under Carol Bartz' tenure. The deal has played an important part in Bing's growth and enabled Yahoo to save money. But even though it uses the same search technology as Bing, Yahoo has been bleeding market share for a while, going down from 16% last year while Microsoft has gone up from 12% in that period.
Yahoo’s eroding search share is one of the reasons its revenue has been falling during the past three years, causing a sharp decline in its stock price as well, and the ousting of Bartz as CEO. The company just hired PayPal's Scott Thompson to replace her and attempt a much needed turnaround.
For Microsoft, there's still a long road toward profitability in search. The firm's online division has suffered operating losses of over $5.5 billion since 2009, but Microsoft seems determined in pushing its way into a strong position by marring Bing with many of its own products, such as Windows Phone and Xbox 360.
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User Comments (10)
Post a comment|
Guest
on January 12, 2012 9:36 AM |
I made a search on Bing a couple months ago, I wrote bing and then hit enter. He came back with ''did you mean Google ?'' |
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TomSEA
on January 12, 2012 10:46 AM |
Yahoo! is turning into the new AOL. They'll be irrelevant in 2-3 more years if not sooner. |
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Guest
on January 12, 2012 11:09 AM |
That's probably because every time I turn around some website or application I've (or kids) installed puts their @$%#$ toolbar on my system. |
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Guest
on January 12, 2012 11:23 AM |
Well at the most they will be irrelevant in America. They are still extremely popular in Asia though. |
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treetops
on January 12, 2012 3:07 PM |
Bing does a great job of forcing itself down your throat. Its attached to array of programs and games. I hate bing. Every 6 months or so when I look at my gran pas computer bing has somehow got itself back on his computer as a toolbar, search default and homepage. I consider it malware. I like yahoo news and questions n answers. But google is my favorite search engine. Yahoo is my 2nd search. |
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Guest
on January 12, 2012 5:31 PM |
I agree it should at least be considered malware or maybe even a virus they way Microsoft and others are jamming it down every ones throat. I have had to disinfect it from my machine 4 times already. |
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Guest
on January 12, 2012 6:04 PM |
this is simply a proof how something useless and unwanted (Bing) can quickly overthrow (at least statistically) something that people are used to with (regardless if it is google good) by simply integrating it in your OS. Then again it will not be the first or the last time. Let's see if Yahoo can sue them the way Europe sued M$ for IE |
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Guest
on January 13, 2012 11:10 AM |
People use Yahoo?!! |
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polidiotic
on January 13, 2012 3:45 PM |
MS to Yahoo (a few years ago): Join us or die! Yahoo's Response: No thanks, we're ok. This is the end result. Unfortunate for Yahoo... |
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Chazz
on January 15, 2012 8:27 PM |
Chrome also is bundled with a crap ton of programs. I have to uninstall it off my families computer as well. I don't consider it malware, same with this annoying Bing toolbar(even though I use bing). |
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