Microsoft's Bing gains traction

BING    MICROSOFT    GOOGLE

Global - Microsoft's new search engine Bing has made some ground on rival Google, as the company rolls out several new advertising and marketing partnerships.

Bing was launched in May and so far it has pushed Microsoft's search market share up slightly in its first month, according to internet data firm StatCounter. It reported that Bing took 8.23% of searches in the US in June, up from 7.21% in April, while at the same Google's market share went from 78.72% to 78.48%. Bing's global market share went from 3.08% in April to 3.3% in June.

Microsoft has also recently announced that Bing will start including tweets, updates from Twitter, in its search results. Microsoft stated that not all tweets will be included at this time, just those from prominent users of Twitter.

Scott Howe, Microsoft's corporate vice president of advertiser and publishers solutions, told Marketing that Bing is "so core to everything we're doing".

"Advertisers are very excited about it. The reaction has been favorable to it. I've been pleasantly surprised with Bing. We believe it's a better product."

Howe said Bing has generated a "good response" from young people.

Microsoft has also announced two new deals, a research partnership on search and branding with WPP, and an arrangement with Mediabrands for a new advertising platform. The platform with Mediabrands, called Media Operations Management System, develops software to automate complexity and build custom applications with an objective to re-invent media planning and buying, measurement and optimization.

"We're heading in the right direction," Howe said.

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