Google continues to dominates search traffic worldwide, although the level varies from country to country.
But there are signs that Bing is beginning to win some market share from Google within specific user categories.
Social networkers – last year Bing established partnerships with the two leading social networks – Facebook and Twitter, whereas Google focused on launching its new social network Google+. As a result, Bing is now the default search engine within Facebook which boasts over 800M users worldwide bringing increased search traffic to Bing as well as raising visibility.
Gamers - in 2011, Microsoft improved the integration of Bing within the XBox and Kinect gaming consoles, giving access to another young demographic user community. And it is hoped they will then continue to use Bing for their other searching.
Mobile Users – currently this is dominated by Google through its Android smartphone technology and integration with Apple’s iOS. However 2012 should be the year when new products from the Microsoft/Nokia deal reach the market. Built upon Windows Phone 7 with Bing installed by default, these should start to win some mobile market share. At the same time,the significantly improved Bing app for Andriod and iOS launched in November 2011 should also win more users. Starting from a very low base, the only way is up for Bing in the mobile sector.
Google clearly recognises Bing as a worthy adversary as evidenced by the recent renewal of its agreement with Mozilla for Google to be the default search engine within the Firefox browser. That deal is valued at almost $1Billion spread over the next three years.
