Bing beats out Yahoo to become No.2 search provider

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 15 2010, 04:54

Google’s dominance in the search arena may appear all-but unassailable, but Microsoft’s Bing platform is certainly not prepared to give up the ghost when it comes to pursuing the market leader.

More pointedly, the latest monthly search figures released by research specialist Nielsen Co. reveal that Bing surpassed Yahoo during August to become the No. 2 search provider across the United States.

Ending the month second only to Google for the very first time since launch, Microsoft amassed some 13.9 percent of the search market via a combination of Bing, MSN and Windows Live – slipping past Yahoo’s 13.1 percent in the process.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Bing’s growth is likely connected to the ad-revenue partnership forged by Microsoft and Yahoo in 2009, which saw Yahoo agreeing to adopt Bing in order to help power its own flagging search engine technology.  

While Bing is clearly showing forward momentum, its numbers fall well short of Google’s mammoth 65 percent share.

Nielsen’s numbers are based on “intentional searches” and do not include contextual searches automatically generated based on browsing habits.

Around the Web