There are a growing number of reports that Microsoft’s (MSFT) new Bing search engine is causing a little perspiration to break out on the foreheads of the people who run Google (GOOG). Early industry research shows that Microsoft’s search market share surged in the two weeks after Bing reached the market.
It has been widely assumed that Yahoo! (YHOO) would suffer the most from a Bing success. Its search results are considered inferior to those produced by Google. That should make it the logical candidate to be damaged by a new, well-received search product.
But, Google has the most market share, about 65% in the US, which means it has the most to lose. According to CNET, top engineers working on “urgent upgrades” to Google’s service. The “news” may be apocryphal, but it could be true if Bing is doing as well as early reports show.
Microsoft has been impatient to undermine Google’s lead position in search for a half a decade. Despite its access to the world’s best software engineers, it has lost ground to both Google and Yahoo! nearly every year since Google became the dominant force in the industry. Microsoft has made several upgrades to its service, the most recent one called Microsoft Live. The product and its launch produced nothing but misery for the company.
The software world is one where a company can have a breakthrough based on a superior product. Chipping at the problem year-after-year, Microsoft may have finally made real progress.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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