Bing Search Engine Off to Strong Start

According to StatCounter, Microsoft's new Internet search service Bing has - at least temporarily - taken over the number-two spot in the search engine wars.

Although it’s probably too early to say whether Microsoft’s new search service Bing will gain any significant traction in the Internet community in the long term—after all, Live Search was touted as a game-changer when it came out, too!—StatCounter is claiming that initial interest in Bing has already propelled it to the number-two search engine in both U.S. and world markets. According to StatCounter, Bing surged forwarded in the U.S. market to account for 16.28 percent of the search market on Thursday, June 4—and it grabbed that share mostly from Google, which dropped to a mere 71.47 percent share of the search market.

Globally, Bing also made it to number-two, but with a less commanding margin: Bing grabbed 5.62 percent of the search market, while Yahoo hung on to 5.13 percent. Google accounted for 87.62 percent of the global search market.

In the meantime, Microsoft has also flipped the switch on Bing Travel, which offers a collection of tools designed to help travelers make more informed decisions. The service includes lodging and airfare tools brought over from Microsoft’s acquisition of FareCast in 2008, along with comparison tools, price predictors, and special travel deals.