Alarm Bells Ring Over Bing

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz | More Articles
June 18, 2009 | Comments (2)

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

You know, there's apparently more to Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT ) new Bing search engine than just the novelty of something fresh.

According to market research firm comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR ) , Bing continues to grow its audience.

If so, that's a rare online win for Microsoft -- and an important one. Everyone figured that Bing would draw a crowd initially. Media headlines and an aggressive marketing campaign virtually assured a big opening push. However, to see Bing gaining ground over the past two weeks since its inception is a huge deal. Folks aren't just trying Bing. They're sticking around and telling their friends.

Metric	5/25-5/29	6/1-6/5	6/8-6/12
Search Penetration	13.7%	15.8%	16.7%
Search Results Share	9.1%	11.3%	12.1%

Source: comScore qSearch.

If the improving trend isn't making folks nervous at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) -- and perhaps more importantly, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO ) -- it should.

Everyone seems to be looking at Bing's impact on Google, and understandably so. Big G relies on Internet advertising to bring home the bacon, and there might not be as much sizzle in the pan if Bing is taking market share at Google's expense.

But Yahoo! has to be the real worrywart. If Bing is able to keep up its current pace, Yahoo! will have to take its silver medal in search and trade it in for a bronze. The last thing Yahoo! needs is fading relevance among its advertisers.

Bing's success will also make it less likely that Microsoft pursues the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business. A partnership is always possible, but suddenly Microsoft has a little more leverage. Now Yahoo! may decide to start eyeing smaller search engines, such as IAC's (Nasdaq: IACI ) Ask.com, or it could try to team up with Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX ) AOL.

The market still hasn't entirely forgiven Yahoo! for losing ground to Google. It's not going to be pretty if Yahoo! lets Microsoft speed by as well.

If the "start wearing purple" people at Yahoo! aren't seeing red now, they may have to settle for a shade of envious green.

The world according to Microsoft:

Even a Google founder is concerned about Bing.
The nearly $100 million that Microsoft is spending to market Bing is money well spent.
The Best Company I've Ever Seen

Best Odds in the Universe!
If you're interested in a 98.79% chance at beating the market... and a 70.84% chance at DOUBLING the market's return – Motley Fool Supernova could be just what you're looking for. And get this: We arrived at these odds from 10,000 random back-tested portfolios composed of Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner's personal stock picks.

It's why David recently handpicked a small team of world-class portfolio managers. You see, he thinks these odds can get even better! And he'd like to prove it to you...

Simply enter your email address. And the answer to the question everybody is asking will be delivered to your inbox!

Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection. Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz admits it: He has turned to Bing a lot over the past two weeks. Rick owns no shares in any of the stocks in this story and is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read/Post Comments (2) | Recommend This Article (17)

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Report this Comment On June 18, 2009, at 4:51 PM, maveric139 wrote:

Its probably gaining market share since once the safe search feature is disabled, it becomes one of the best FREE video porno websites on the internet. Somebody should check the demographic on who using bing. Just saying,....because that is how it was introduced to me.
Report this Comment On June 18, 2009, at 7:45 PM, MyDonkey wrote:

Do you BING? (Believe In Naked Girls)

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 924030, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 2/10/2012 10:44:19 PM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 28 minutes ago Sponsored by:
	DOW	12,801.23	-89.23	-0.69%
	S&P 500	1,342.64	-9.31	-0.69%
	NASD	2,903.88	-23.35	-0.80%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes