Like most anything in life, when there’s competition between various parties, those parties tend to work harder to increase or maintain their respective positions. It’s similar to what will happen in the world of Search now that Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo have agreed to merge their search platforms.
Microsoft gets to combine their search technology and highly touted adCenter platform with Yahoo’s large advertiser base and sales team. Yahoo has lacked strategic direction for a number of years and now may finally move on in their competition with Google now that Microsoft is a partner. Bing has a nice interface, and by utilizing its “powered by Bing” notation for search results on Yahoo and its partner sites, represents a real option for Googlers.
It does remain to be seen if Yahoo/Bing will be able to make inroads into future marketshare. Depending on what you read, Google currently has between a 75-85% share-of-voice. No matter what technology is in place, the bottom-line for consumers is search results, and options to filter those results. Google has prevailed in this regard, and has stayed on the forefront with maps, video search, and local search.
Nevertheless, advertisers can win here, because Yahoo/Bing offer less competitive ads with regard to the sponsored link ads. Cost-per-clicks generally are less than Google, and because there’s less competition, ad click-thru rates can be better than Google’s. The scenario evidently becomes a media buying dilemma- buy Google for reach; buy Yahoo/Bing for efficiency. Depending on client budgets; the optimal media plans should combine both. Think of it like Philadelphia radio. KYW 1060 has high reach, but you pay for that reach. Big Talker 1210 has a much smaller audience, but is priced more efficiently. Many advertisers buy both stations.
In the meantime, I would imagine that during the time it takes for the merger to be approved by the government regulators and the Yahoo to Microsoft adCenter transition (perhaps over a year!), Google will add more features and continue to improve search results. Doncha love competition!
Paul Mosenson
How are you using Social Media Today?
Copyright Dinkum Interactive 2009-2012. All Rights Reserved.
February 8, 2012. Posted under: Blog.
In the past two weeks, I attended two conferences that were world’s apart but linked. One was focused on large, profitable companies. The other involved nonprofits. They both discussed social media. The first conference featured CEOs, many of whom are grappling with the use of social media within their organizations. Each CEO had a bit of a different take on
Bing can’t even come close to the amount of content indexed by Google. I’m not saying competition is bad, but I think it will take a long time for Microsoft to make a serious dent into Google’s dominance.
It’s all about results and experience.
Provide the best results, surrounded by the better search experience, and Google will continue to win. But keep in mind, who heard of Twitter a year ago? If something is unique, simple, and useful, it can spread fast due to the power of social media and word-of-mouth.
Personally, I don’t think it matters, even if a hundred search engines become combined, it still wont match the power of Google, its just too popular and provides the best results. Good luck to Yahoo/Bing, there not going anywhere anytime soon.
Paul, you made a good point that advertisers can win here.
The two engines ARE different. I use Bing alot for my personal searches with IE and google with Firefox. Geez, some people use Excite. As an advertiser, I would test both as part of the process of determining cost-effectiveness. Perhaps YOUR best customers rely more on BING!
As far as search goes, it may be easier for a new website to get a good ranking in BING! long before Google. That can factor in your advertising, too.
No doubt that Google has an overall lead in search. Still Microsoft has built certain advantages over the years and I wouldn’t discount their ability to move forward. IBM was the only personal computer to buy foir a long time. Apple came out with the Mac and garnered a huge proportion of desktop publishing.
I agree with Tim; I think it’ll be a long time before Bing makes serious inroads into google’s market dominance. More to the point, Yahoo/Bing still has some significant issues that need ironing out as it yet returns some inconsistent and unreliable search data.
That said, you’re right Paul about the balance needed between reach and efficiency; I can see Bing evolving into a complimentary channel for keyword budgets, offering potentially better targeted searches for less while still working in cooperation with google keywords.
It is true that Bing is going up. If you do a comparison with Google Trends you will see that the data from Google itself prove that. As far as concerns pay per click it is a good practice to set up a campaign with Bing too, since the bid is not that high.