Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine picked up more steam in January, but can the company keep it up?
According to Web analytics firm comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing broke through to 11 percent of U.S. searches last month.
The tracking firm is set to release its January figures Wednesday, however, one of the firm’s clients provided the basic numbers to InternetNews.comon Tuesday afternoon.
This is the eighth consecutive month that Microsoft Bing has gained ground since its launch in early June, by comScore’s methodology. In January, Bing hit 11.3 percent — up from 10.7 percent in December.
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), in contrast, had its 12th straight decline, slipping 0.3 percent since December to 17 percent of U.S. searches.
Meanwhile, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) also lost a little of its dominant market share. In January, Google dropped from 65.7 percent in December to 65.4 percent, also a loss of 0.3 percent.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that, after lackluster attempts to become a major player in search in the past, this time he intends for his company to be successful vis-à-vis Google, although he has not specified what that means.
Ballmer did say last year that he is willing to spend as much as 5 to 10 percent of Microsoft’s operating incomefor the next five years to achieve success in search.
The Microsoft Yahoo hook-up
Ballmer even went so far as to make a deal with Yahoo to provide Bing’s search infrastructure to the other firm’s Web sites in return for part of those sites’ advertising revenues. That deal was finally signed in December. It still awaits regulatory approval in the U.S. and the European Union.
While the Microsoft and Yahoo deal will not yield a single combined competitor to go against Google, the two companies’ combined market share, as measured in January, would make them a strong number two competitor with a total of 28.3 percent market share between them.
Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS
-
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
-
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
-
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
-
Top 10 AIOps Companies
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
-
What is Text Analysis?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
-
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
-
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
-
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
-
Top 10 Chatbot Platforms
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
-
Finding a Career Path in AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
-
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
-
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
-
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
-
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
-
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
-
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
-
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
-
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
-
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020