Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Bing posted higher search-engine growth on a weekly basis in June than its three main rivals, according to online Web site measurement researcher Hitwise, though Google Inc. (GOOG) continued to distance itself from its rivals.
Google Inc. captured 74% of the U.S. Internet search market in the four weeks ended June 27, though Microsoft Corp. experienced strong weekly growth thanks to its new Bing search engine, according to data released Thursday by Hitwise. Microsoft captured 5.25% of the search market in the period, Hitwise said, though the company’s Bing search engine grew at an average weekly rate of 25%. Microsoft unveiled Bing at the end of May, and has invested heavily in promoting it. Yahoo Inc. captured 16.2% of the search market during the period, Hitwise said.
In only a month’s time, Bing managed to jump up to more unique visitors than Digg, Twitter and CNN, as Mashable points out. Not bad considering it’s only a month old and Twitter has been building its hype for a couple years.
The site was visited by nearly 50 million users – 49,571,922 to be precise. Twitter got 22,997,148 visitors in the same period, CNN got 28,645,202 and Digg got 38,961,981.
Despite this, Bing has been powering ahead at a rate that could have Google feeling the crunch – although the current search king has already dismissed the new challenger as no serious threat. Brand Republic reports, however, that early usability tests have indicated that Bing’s sponsored listings are proving to be read more often than Google’s equivalent listings, suggesting that the ‘decision engine’ could be well placed to tempt advertisers away from Mountain View.
Of course, Google and Yahoo are still way out in front, so Bing’s got some way to go, but at least it’s on the right path.