Microsoft’s Bing has claimed a 20 percent share of the U.S. desktop search market for the first time since its launch in 2009. According to the latest figures from comScore, Bing’s slice of the pie rose 0.3 percentage points to 20.1 percent in March, while Google dropped 0.1 percent to claim 64.4 percent of searches run through a desktop browser.
It’s a significant milestone in Bing’s growth as mobile, desktop and Web landscapes continue to shift. Just this week Microsoft and Yahoo thrashed out a new deal that states 51 percent of Yahoo search results must have Bing-powered adverts alongside them. With the introduction of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, meanwhile, Apple has switched from Google to Bing for its Spotlight search feature.
It’s a very different story outside of the United States, however. In Europe, where Google is facing antitrust allegations, it still enjoys a 90.94 percent share of the desktop search market, with Bing stuck back on 3.37 percent. Globally, Google enjoys 87.95 percent of the market, whereas Bing claims 4.4 percent. Even with figures like these, Microsoft will be encouraged by signs that it’s finally starting to get a foothold.
The launch of Windows 10 isn’t too far away now, and you can expect Bing integration to once again feature heavily throughout the operating system, so this may improve the search engine’s fortunes even further. The biggest loser has been Yahoo, which was claiming up to 20 percent of the share of search in certain markets before Bing arrived on the scene.
In today’s climate, it’s not just about throwing out search results — it’s about providing a ‘front page’ to the Internet where users can get images, video, content and personalized assistants. Don’t forget Cortana will be making an appearance in Windows 10, powered of course by Bing.
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