San Francisco — Microsoft’s aggressive assault on Google’s domination of internet searches does not appear to be paying off. Internet tracking firm Hitwise reported that Bing and Yahoo! online search engines lost ground in the United States in September while Google inched ahead slightly. The report, however, showed that Ask.com had made a biggest gain, up by 8%.
According to latest figures released by HitWise, Bing, launched with much fanfare by Microsoft in June, saw its share of US searches fell from 9.49 percent in August to 8.99 percent in September, in spite of the $80m (£50m) advertising budget Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer allocated to its launch.
Google search recorded 71.08% of all U.S. searches conducted between September and October, while Yahoo! and Bing accounted for 16.38% and 8.96% respectively, according to internet monitoring firm Hitwise.
That is a 1% market share increase for Google, Hitwise reported late on Tuesday. Bing slid 5%, going from 9.48% in September to 8.96% of the market early in October. Holding in second place, Yahoo Search dropped 3%, going from 16.96% to 16.38%.
Ask.com was the biggest winner, which has not shown up in much, if any, of the rivalry hoopla, showed the biggest increase. Ask.com with its share of US searches climbed from 2.37% to 2.56% in September as compared to August, an 8% increase in share.
Google’s latest search rival, Bing, did not have as good a month, though. Last week, Web metrics firm Net Applications reported that Bing had its first slide since entering the market.
The latest statistics, from internet monitoring firm Hitwise, will make disappointing reading for Ballmer, who has said he is willing to spend as much as $11bn on search.
Google last week introduced search engine refinements as Microsoft continues an aggressive campaign to lure people to Bing. Earlier this week The Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying: “We are trying to give Google a little competition in the search business.”
Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive, yesterday backed up the rise in market share by proclaiming “the worst is behind us” in terms of the advertising recession, saying the company is seeing “aspects of recovery” in both the US and Europe.
In direct contrast to Microsoft, which is cutting costs by 10% and plans to shed 5,000 jobs this year and next, Schmidt said that Google has increased its hiring rate and investment in anticipation of that recovery, the first signs of which he began to see as early as May.
Yahoo! and Microsoft, after months of negotiations, unveiled a 10-year Web search and advertising partnership in late July that set the stage for a joint offensive against Google.
Under the agreement, Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s search engine on its own sites while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium advertisers.
The Yahoo!-Microsoft deal remains subject to regulatory approval.
Shares in Google, which reports its third-quarter results next week, rose by $10.94 to $509.68, while those in Microsoft fell seven cents to $25.04.