Bing and Yahoo! gain more ground against Google

May 13, 2010

The latest figures from comScore have revealed that Yahoo! increased its share of the US search engine market by nearly one per cent in April, while Microsoft's Bing continued to rise for the 11th consecutive month.

Analysts are debating whether this rise shows the effects of the search deal between the two former rivals now being felt, or if Yahoo's gain is due to a new feature of its news service.

According to AFP, tech analysts have pointed to a new feature of Yahoo! News, which registers each view of a photo slideshow as a separate search query, as the primary reason for the turnaround in Yahoo!'s fortunes - up by 0.8 per cent last month to account for 17.7 per cent of the lucrative search market.

comScore confirmed that these clicks are still valid however, stating that the Yahoo! News feature meets its "established criteria for counting search queries."

"Both Yahoo! sites and Microsoft sites have experienced gains due in part to the introduction of new site navigation experiences that tie content and related search results together within several channels," the internet research company explained.

"These features provide search results to users as they navigate through topical content."

Google is still the clear leader of the pack, holding 64.4 per cent of the search market, or 10 billion of the 15.5 billion core searches carried out by web users United States in April. The more interesting news for analysts is that the Mountain View giant is still losing ground against its rising competitors at an accelerating rate, dropping by 0.7 per cent last month compared to a 0.4 per cent fall in February.

With the five-year search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo!, as well as targeted advertising campaigns boasting the advantages of their respective offerings over those of Google, the Silicon Valley partnership is likely to be a growing source of concern for the Google empire.


Source:  bigmouthmedia.com