Archive of thenextweb.com
Microsoft has made it plain that in no way is Bing a planned money-sink for the company. Bing, according to Microsoft, is out to grab market share, and “grow into profitability.”
Bing has some 10.7% market share of the global search market, putting it in third place. It remains a decided also-ran to Google. Once the search deal with Yahoo is complete, Bing will have control of nearly 30% of the market.
This will for the first time in recent memory create a duopoly in search, where a benevolent dictator has reigned these past years. (more…)
Apple and Microsoft are currently holding talks on the possibility of making Bing the default search provider for the iPhone in a move that underscores the growing rift between Apple and Google.
Bing, the popular search engine from Microsoft has 11% of the mobile search market. Google controls some 86%, much of that coming from the iPhone. Turn iPhones into Bing devices, and all of a sudden Microsoft is the market leader in mobile search.
All in one fell swoop against the search leader Google.
Of course, Apple and Google have been having more and more difficulties surrounding their partnership for iPhone software. Google, while pressing its Android strategy, has had more than one run-in with Apple over mobile apps in the past. It seems that Apple is determined to take a swipe back at Google. (more…)
Bing, the rising star from the Microsoft empire was on a roll just a month ago it seemed, spilling out new features rapidly and inhaling market share.
December was quite the turn around for the engine, which watched its market share drop from 10.7% to 9.9%. That works out to an 7.5% drop in Bing market share, month over month.
Admittedly, this is merely a one month dip to date, but such a large shift is hard to ignore. If this trend continues for the next two months, Bing will have experienced a full quarter of problems.
Total searches for December: 9.9 billion. This of course means that it is at the moment quite simple to calculate market share. You get 10% for every billion searches you serve a month. Bing: 986 million, which rounds to 9.9%. (more…)
- UPDATE – We have confirmation of censorship in Yahoo Image search. Unlike Bing, Yahoo is not currently censoring web searches. Screenshot here.
It seems that Bing and Yahoo are bowing to governmental pressure and censoring search results that relate to certain explicit terms.
If you would like to see the ban in action, follow this link and search for “sex. Or, click on this link here, where I have done it for you. As our initial source TechYoYo points out, this means that you can no longer search for “sex discrimination,” as that has a banned word. Test that here.
These changes are coming about due to India’s Information Technology Act (passed in 2000), which did ban pornographic material. It is now being enforced in new ways. We do not at this time have an exhaustive list of what terms are banned, but you can guess the vein that they lie in.
However, as you might have guessed, there is a way around this. Merely head into your account and change your country to any Western nation, and the ban is lifted. Head here to do so.
Easy to hack through, but very annoying to the average user. Comically, SafeSearch in Bing is now forcibly turned on, at all times. If you attempt to change that in your account (if set to India), you see this: (more…)
Search engine giants Google shall be helping newspaper publishers limit the amount of free news access readers can have, they announced yesterday.
From today, content providers can sign up to a ‘First Click Free’ policy, which will only allow readers to look at five articles free of charge on their site. After this, the reader will have to pay to read content or subscribe. The announced the policy changes on Google’s official Webmaster Central Blog, adding that Google have always supported publishers trying to push their articles out online, so felt it would be best to limit the free access to news online readers currently enjoy.
“As most users are generally happy to be able to access just a few pages from these premium content providers, we’ve decided to allow publishers to limit the number of accesses under the First Click Free policy to five free accesses per user each day. This change applies to both Google News publishers as well as websites indexed in Google’s Web Search. We hope that this encourages even more publishers to open up more content to users around the world!” (more…)
Google, just like Bing, keeps making their core search product better. Google today is releasing the minimalist homepage that you probably know, to the masses.
It removes many of the main page elements, bringing them to you once you wave your mouse over the page.
If you have been under a rock, the changes look just like this. New on the left, old on the right.
(more…)
Surely you heard the news that Microsoft is contemplating a deal with News Corp to pay the news giant to pull itself from Google.
Bing, of course, would still be able to spider News Corp properties, giving Bing a major competitive advantage.
From myself, and the rest of the internet community: Microsoft, you must not do this.
Doing so would set a precedent that content should charge search engines for the right to be spidered. What you are doing is just that, attempting to buy exclusive rights to News Corp online. This is the proverbial slippery slope.
Openness is one of the most important concepts on the internet. If you create content, it is searchable. Google brought this revolution, and made the internet not just live up to its potential, but made it useable. Pre-functioning search, the internet was just an idea with potential. Search unlocked the dragon, in the best way possible. (more…)
Despite the apparent impressive resurgence of Microsoft as a search engine player, the company has an enormous task ahead as it aims to compete head on with Google in the search engine market.
Between September and October, Google’s share of U.S. core searches rose 0.5% to 65.4%, far outstripping its nearest competitors Yahoo! and Bing.
That said, Bing also raised its share by 0.5% but still only governs 9.9% of the entire market.
What’s frightening, at least for Yahoo, Bing and Co. is that analysts don’t see any sign of Google’s dominance dwindling over the year ahead, particular in the ad revenue search market where Google makes a large proportion of its income.
An analyst from UBS told the National Post:
“Due to Google’s dominant position in the U.S. search market, we expect the company to take a disproportionate share of search ad spend in the fourth quarter and 2010,”
As Google and Microsoft moved ahead in the rankings, Yahoo is once again the loser, as it suffered a 0.8% market share drop to 18%, still higher than Bing mind you.
For Yahoo however, their search engine deal which essentially hands over the reigns to Microsoft is a light at the end of the tunnel and should could be confirmed by the end of the week if All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher’s sources are correct.
Bing today is launching several new features that greatly improve the search engine, and continue its war with the giant Google. Upgrades include integration with Wolfram|Alpha, upgraded “hover over” capabilities, and intent based weather and event results.
Strong Wolfram|Alpha Integration:
We heard about this a while back; Bing is finally bringing it live. Of course, Bing has long called itself a “decision engine,” instead of a normal search engine. Integration with Wolfram|Alpha is a big step in that direction.
Microsoft claims to want to bring you “knowledge versus information.” In their notes to TheNextWeb, Microsoft outlined how you might go about using Wolfram|Alpha and Bing together:
“Some estimates suggest that as many as 90 million Americans are on a diet each year. Bing brings you improved nutrition results in partnership with Wolfram Alpha, to help you make more informed choices on your diet. When you search for specific food items on Bing you get a nutrition quick tab that allows you to learn more about it. You also get a nutrition facts label at the bottom of the results page that summarizes all information on that food item in a very familiar and friendly format.”
I have long been a fan of Wolfram Alpha, and I have proof. Bing is a strong search engine, but tight integration with Wolfram|Alpha is a big step, in my eyes, to making it great. (more…)
Google cannot seem to keep its hands to itself. Rolling out in the next 24 hours is the new Google Music Search One Box. Lengthy title aside, you can now listen to music from Google search.
The search engine giant will not itself be serving up the music, it will be brought in via partner companies that will launch the play of a song in a pop-up window. That annoyance aside, Google massive reach is about to shake some roofs.
Google does not intend on monetizing this, shockingly. This was revealed to Matt McGee at Search Engine Land, who said the following: “Contrary to recent rumors, you won’t see any links to purchase the songs — at least for now. Google’s RJ Pittman told us today that, while some of their music partners have a commerce element, the focus of Google’s new music search is information, not selling digital songs. In fact, there’s no commercial arrangement at all, we’re told, between Google and the music partner sites included in this launch.”
Google has long been the source of everything free, and this is no exception. Again we find Google making connections, while avoiding the time-consuming backend labor. By adding this feature into search, Google is taking a step ahead of rival Bing. Microsoft is certain to reciprocate in short order. (more…)
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