Ok, so maybe people in the office might think I should eat my words when I touted the eminent failure of MSN’s new search engine – BING.com (Also known as But.Its.Not.Google. – Thank you Leslie and Tina). When I heard of this 3rd rebrand of the MSN search engine I was definitely one of the most vocal about my skepticism.
Remember Mrs. Dewy? How about live.com? Don’t forget – MSN.com. This tactic has been used before. I thought the idea that you only need to re-brand to seem cooler and hipper to become the next big thing was a thing of the past. It’s what Ask.com – formerly askjeeves.com – attempted a few years ago. They put up several hip billboards, ran a hilarious TV ad campaign, and implemented extensive online marketing and our market base still wasn’t fooled. In the search engine game it’s all about results and Google’s got them more often than not.
When I initially tested Bing out I didn’t think much about it. Bing had several features that Google, Yahoo and ASK also have and though the results seemed better for MSN than before but that’s not saying much.
This last week, however, made me rethink marketing in a new way. Product Integration – what an amazing concept! When I saw NBC’s recent research piece done on Bing it occurred to me that NBC integrating BING into their night-time line-up might be the winning solution, at least at first. This integration continued into the network’s most popular and new shows as cast members used the search engine, and joked about the images used in its cool new GUI interface. The shows were followed by viral television commercials. Each message had a clear USP. They are very creative but also very familiar to anyone who remembers Ask.com’s commercial campaign in 2007 about the Bear Attack or Bigfoot sighting.
The graph below is provided by ComScore’s research. It shows Google’s search share at 65% Pre–Bing launch.
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Below is a recent growth chart showing Bing’s aggressive market control takeover. We are talking about 3% shift in less than 1 month.
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The following Alexa graph shows that there is an obvious impact on search share, however it’s consistent and I’m seeing a static trend.
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I am not going to retract my prediction of Bing’s failure at this point because I feel that accuracy is more important for a search engine user than cool tools. However MSN and Bing might be onto something, it’s too early to call it They might have to keep tooling this to get that trend to climb in the way that they need it to in order to get the search advertising spend they so desperately want a bigger piece of.
How do you guys feel about MSN becoming Bing and its search results? What are your thoughts about the offline campaigns?
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I am not a fan of bing but thanks for an insightful article.
Let’s hope it’s the last rebrand from Microsoft.
Great Post, there’s alot of talk about Bing lately, I think time will tell if people are actually taking notice and using them.
Good luck Bing, Googles not going anywhere anytime soon
Interesting….
Lets hope it’s a winner!
They are doing a pretty damn good job, but at what cost…i hear they are spending hundreds of millions of dollars!
I refuse to use Bing because of their new TV commercial campaigns.
@jimmy walker
Interesting enough. I just tried keywordspy, semrush and spyfu and all show 0 data on spend..
what is that about?
Thanks for the info! Very well written!
MSN and Yahoo should get married….
I have just recently started using bing and have enjoyed using it. The results are questionable sometimes but look forward to seeing what bing becomes. Good Luck.
I am rooting for Bing. Right now it`s too early in the game to say Bing is actually a threat to Google and it`s users. I did the blind test (see my blog for info) and found Yahoo to be the winner out of Google, Bing and Yahoo – go figure! However, considering the nightmare it is to work in the SEO space with Google in (almost) full control, I do hope Bing is successful! Then maybe Google will have to ease up on it`s FUD campaigns and PR will become more and more of a things of the past! It`s never good to have one company in control – it becomes a hostage situation at that point. Right now, Google controls too much, and that`s only because no one else has been as successful! Bing had to come out strong AND advertise, otherwise they wouldn`t stand a chance! Google is so well branded, the entire world uses it! If you wanna compete with the big dogs, you gotta pay the big bucks! Good luck Bing, I`m rooting for you! Let`s give Google a run for their money!
I am a total google fan because it’s all I use however, I am impressed with Microsoft’s roll-out of bing. They’ve incorporated all aspects of marketing into the launch of bing, and everything they do is coordinated to increase that impact.
I just started using Bing and its pretty cool..we will see how it works
As a fellow SEO and online marketing professional I think you should embrace Bing and HOPE they succeed.
More competition is good for the search space, not less.
In addition, our data shows that conversion rates at Bing & Yahoo are much higher than Google.
I hope that Bing is wildly successful.
I agree with this you got to have good results if you want to gain market share. Marketing can only go so far.
It’s unfortunate that a company the size of Microsoft can’t come up with a quality search engine to knock Google down. I’m an ardent Google Hater, and would love to see the giant fall. Go Bing! Unfortunately, you’re probably right Joe, it’s going to fail.
I’m not very familiar with Bing, but you know what there was before Google? Lycos, Archie (pre-web days), FTP (for transfering files), etc.
There is always room for new technologies and new things to improve our lives. Bing could very well be the “next big thing”.
Very interesting article! Thanks for the information. Will def have to check it out and see for myself.
Bing continues to take share (yes, it’s small)from Google and Yahoo. And, if a recent study conducted by JupiterResearch is accurate (it shows that only 55% of search engine marketers are integrating their search marketing efforts with offline channels) Bing could make some great strides as more brands copy NBC’s formula mentioned in your post…
What do you guys think should be BING’s next move considering this initial marketing worked a bit but looks like in almost a month this has sputtered out?
I think it’s still too early to tell. With the huge sums of money Microsoft spent on the Bing rollout, I would hope they showed an increased market share for at least awhile.
my initial test result shows that Bing is as good as Google when displaying relevant search results. Google might be having a tough competitor with Microsofts own search engine.
i have been evaluating the search results of Microsoft Bing compared to Google and they are comparable. Bing gives almost the same relevant search results just like Google.
Bing search engine gives almost the same search results as Google. Looks like Google will now have a tough competition when it comes to search engine technology.
Bing does give search results much like Google but i would have to say that Google still gives more relevant search results
BING search engine is just as good as Google. In my own personal experience, Google does give more releveant search result than Bing but the difference is very small. **
my default search engine is Yahoo but now i am using BING because it is much better than Yahoo. i heard that Bing search engine would power Yahoo search also.