5 ms·

This reminds me of Microsoft saying they will 'grow another Google' over the next few years (a few years ago). At the time Microsofts market cap was c.$250bn an

This reminds me of Microsoft saying they will 'grow another Google' over the next few years (a few years ago). At the time Microsofts market cap was c.$250bn and Google's was $100bn. Now the Microsoft market cap is $264bn and Google is $186bn.

notauser 17y ago
Bing might actually be heading towards a major slice of the search engine market. Right now everyone's browser defaults to Google search. Partly this is because most people still have Win XP and when they got those the default (Windows live search) was horrible. There was a reason to switch to Google. These days Bing's results are good enough that most normal people wouldn't bother to change their browser default if it was set to Bing. Thanks to the good publicity it's been getting in the main stream media it looks like a _lot_ of people are going to upgrade to Win 7, including the crowd of late-adopters that stuck with XP. All of these people will get Bing by default with their new install/computer, and a lot of them won't bother to change it. A box you type in to get search results when you open the Internet window? Yep, I can 'google' from here. It would take a bad experience to drive these users to change their home page to Google again.
- DougBTX 17y ago
  Also, even if you do realise you can change which search engine backs the search box in the top right, and manage to get to the add provider gallery, Google is way down on the second page.
- apgwoz 17y ago
  And if you see google as a search company, than this is ba news. Too bad they are an ad company.
  - notauser 17y ago
    A drop in search volume doesn't impact their content network ads, you are correct. However I don't think Microsoft will let Google buy space on Bing to place their ads. Therefore a drop in search volume leads to a cut in ad revenue. Even if placement on Bing for ad words was possible Google would have to give Microsoft a cut - right now they keep 100% of search revenue (minus operating costs). Unless Bing is substantially cheaper to run than Google that would work out badly for revenue per ad. Worst of all from their perspective a drop in search volume would lead to a loss of opportunity to push news, gmail, youtube and especially maps/local search. These related properties must be benefiting heavily from their top placement in Google search results.
- berntb 17y ago
  So, an OK replacement that comes with the monopolist OS installation and use that to beat the market leader. It worked with Internet Explorer. No reason to worry, then? I mean, it is not like Microsoft would do something immoral like e.g. cripple the state of art for years, to protect some other business area, right? :-(

notauser 17y ago

Bing might actually be heading towards a major slice of the search engine market. Right now everyone's browser defaults to Google search. Partly this is because most people still have Win XP and when they got those the default (Windows live search) was horrible. There was a reason to switch to Google. These days Bing's results are good enough that most normal people wouldn't bother to change their browser default if it was set to Bing. Thanks to the good publicity it's been getting in the main stream media it looks like a _lot_ of people are going to upgrade to Win 7, including the crowd of late-adopters that stuck with XP. All of these people will get Bing by default with their new install/computer, and a lot of them won't bother to change it. A box you type in to get search results when you open the Internet window? Yep, I can 'google' from here. It would take a bad experience to drive these users to change their home page to Google again.

DougBTX 17y ago
Also, even if you do realise you can change which search engine backs the search box in the top right, and manage to get to the add provider gallery, Google is way down on the second page.
apgwoz 17y ago
And if you see google as a search company, than this is ba news. Too bad they are an ad company.
- notauser 17y ago
  A drop in search volume doesn't impact their content network ads, you are correct. However I don't think Microsoft will let Google buy space on Bing to place their ads. Therefore a drop in search volume leads to a cut in ad revenue. Even if placement on Bing for ad words was possible Google would have to give Microsoft a cut - right now they keep 100% of search revenue (minus operating costs). Unless Bing is substantially cheaper to run than Google that would work out badly for revenue per ad. Worst of all from their perspective a drop in search volume would lead to a loss of opportunity to push news, gmail, youtube and especially maps/local search. These related properties must be benefiting heavily from their top placement in Google search results.
berntb 17y ago
So, an OK replacement that comes with the monopolist OS installation and use that to beat the market leader. It worked with Internet Explorer. No reason to worry, then? I mean, it is not like Microsoft would do something immoral like e.g. cripple the state of art for years, to protect some other business area, right? :-(