Bing has hit the big 01 after replacing live search one year ago. Bing has become Microsoft?s champion in the search engine wars against Google and Yahoo. Dubbed the ?decision engine?, Microsoft?s aim with Bing is to redefine the way users search, giving easy and to the point access of information.
The first TV ad for Bing was released shortly after it?s launch. The 60 second ad used the catchphrase ?Bing and decide,? which vowed to end ?search overload?. Bing upgraded from the beta status in November 2009, new features have been added such as visual search and video.The original brand of ?Kumo? was replaced by Bing and became the official name.
Rumours of a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo were ignited, and a back and fourth discussion between the two made for some very confusing times. One rumour did the rounds that Microsoft was going to purchase Yahoo,l but Ballmer squashed this one quickly. A deal was eventually struck to replace Yahoo with Bing for 10 years. Which would allow Microsoft to use Yahoo?s search technology to fine tune Bing. This deal was fully implemented only 24hrs after it was signed.
Bing started with a fairly good market share of 2.96% in it?s first month. this grew over the next few months to hit 3.52% in August 2009. Bing?s market share has held pretty steady since then, and was at 3.24% in May 2010.
Bing has yet to knock Google of the top spot, which will be it’s greatest challenge. But Google brand power is pretty phenomenal, it?s well known globally and is set as the default search engine in most of top browsers.
But Microsoft still holds 1st place in browser market share, which may well be the key to Bing?s success. Internet Explorer hold 54.75% of the US market share, with Firefox being it?s closest competitor at 29.75%.
One of Microsoft’s most successful pieces of software is Office. Microsoft recently announced that it?s made a deal with manufacturers in the US to offer an Office 2010 trial for just $2 instead of $5when a Bing bar is installed on their machine.
Bing has also gone mobile, with the Bing app available on several different mobile phones including the iPhone in the US. It will be well integrated with Mobile 7 when it launches later this year. The app offers free turn-by-turn navigation, allowing complete navigation on you phone. Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T customers in the US are also offered a free GPS unit with the Bing app.
