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| A former search whiz at Yahoo!, Qi Liu is now spearheading Microsoft’s Bing, which is already garnering good reviews. |
Microsoft Corp., a perennial disappointment in the search
world, may have finally come up with something worthwhile. Bing, its new search
site launched in June, gained enough share during its first week in use to
briefly unseat Yahoo! as the second most widely used search engine, according
to web analysis firm StatCounter.
After a long slow decline, Microsoft’s search market share
among searchers rose to 15.5 percent from 13.8 percent in the first week
following Bing’s release, according to data from ComScore. While Bing—headed by
ex-Yahoo! wizard Qi Lu—may have a good shot at unseating Yahoo!, it has barely
put a dent in Google’s market share, which retains an 8-to-1 lead in search
results pages returned over Microsoft.
Observers say it is still unclear whether the $100 million
or so Microsoft will pour into its ad campaign for Bing will enable the company
to hold onto and expand on its early gains. Bing, which allows users to drill
down on a subject to reach their goal more quickly, is getting particularly
good reviews for its search results in niches like travel and shopping.
Users have also given Microsoft kudos for the search
engine’s ability to search through video clips quickly. That capability has
also drawn complaints for its tendency to bypass porn filters. But that
perceived fault may be another sign of success. After all, pornography is well
known as an early adopter of innovative technology.