Microsoft's latest foray into search, Bing, went live early June amid mixed reviews. So the obvious question many are asking is how has it fared against almighty Google in its first month? Not bad, according to research firm StatCounter, which claims Microsoft's share of the search market increased from 7.81 percent to 8.23 percent since the launch of its search portal.
That number is significantly lower than what was reported two weeks into Bing's launch, however, showing many just took it for a spin and then moved back to their original search provider. Yahoo's market share on the other hand stayed practically stationary last month, going from 10.99 to 11.04 percent, while Google's share dropped slightly from 78.72 percent in May to a still dominant 78.48 percent of the market in June.
Microsoft's gain may be small but is nevertheless important to the company, which is investing heavily in its online services business, refusing to cede the market to Google. One month is not enough to claim a strong comeback, though, we'll have to wait and see if they can keep up the growth pace.