Bing. Bing. Bing!

Catchy, isn’t it?

If you’ve been anywhere near a television or computer in the last six months than you know about Bing, Microsoft’s newest search engine.  As we approach Bing’s half-birthday, let’s take a look at how Bing has gobbled up market share and got the attention of its older, bigger and meaner brother…Google.

On March 28th, Bing was introduced at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego; it went fully online on June 3, 2009 replacing Microsoft’s old platforms: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and Live Search.  Microsoft had been seeking a spark to try and break into a search market dominated by Google and Yahoo!  Enter Bing: The Decision Engine.

Bing’s advertising push has been creative and has done a wonderful job of driving home the point that other search engines can be confusing and inefficient (Bing commercial here).  One of the examples used is when a searcher looking for back pain remedies could find results for “back packing”, “back to school” and “bach, johann sebastian”.  Some of the examples are embellished for effect, but the commercials succeed in pointing out the problems with Bing’s main competitors.  At the same time, Bing has leveled the playing field by modeling the amenities provided by Google/Yahoo! such as local maps listings.  Learning from your competitors mistakes and mirroring their successes is a solid strategy and the designers at Microsoft have perfected it.

Bing makes a good point that search engines are FAR from perfect (including Bing itself).  As organic search marketers, it is easy to get caught up in traffic numbers and conversions, while forgetting that we play an integral role in helping search engines provide accurate search results (with that comes responsibility…I’m talking to you Black Hats!).  If we can help ten florists in Salt Lake City get ranked 1-10 for the search phrase “flowers salt lake city”, then the searcher should be satisfied with their selection and the search engine has gained a loyal visitor.

So the question is…is it working?  The numbers do not lie, as Bing should own just over 10% of the search market by the end of 2009.  This is impressive considering just a few years ago they hovered around 5%.

What does it mean for us?  It’s a good thing to have another “player” in the search engine game!  Having an Internet with just one dominant search engine is not what we want as searchers or search marketers.  Options are a beautiful thing!

Is Bing better or ever going to be better than Google?  Depends on who you ask and it’s impossible to tell at this point, though judging by its first six months of life the future of Bing looks bright!

So, let us be the first to say…HAPPY HALF-BIRTHDAY BING!