Bing seems to be doing something right, at least according to the latest numbers from the Web analytics firm Experian Hitwise, that show its share of searches on the rise.
The data comes on the heels of a war of words between search engines Google and Bing which took the form of undercover stings and accusations of copied search results, as Google seeks to maintain its position as the premier search engine.
According to Experian Hitwise’s data, Bing-powered searches comprised 27.44% of searches for the month of January, with Yahoo and Bing receiving 14.62% and 12.81% respectively. (Yahoo finalized its transition to Bing for its search engine in August.) For its part, Google accounted for 67.95% of all searches, down 2% from last month.
Bing and Yahoo Search also achieved the highest success rates in January, meaning that for both search engines more than 81% of searches resulted in a visit to a website. Google’s, by comparison, was 65%. As Experian Hitwise notes, “The share of unsuccessful searches highlights the opportunity for both the search engines and marketers to evaluate the search engine result pages to ensure that searchers are finding relevant information.”
It also provides an interesting backdrop to the recent spats between Google and Bing, as Bing looks like an increasing threat to Google’s domination of search.
