Bing dinged? Not so fast, Fool.
New data from comScore says that Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) upstart search engine gained rather than lost share, as Nielsen reported in its latest MegaView Search survey.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) also gained ground, but not as much as Bing, comScore reports. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), AOL (NYSE: AOL), and IAC's (Nasdaq: IACI) Ask.com all lost share. The numbers in detail:
What's with the discrepancy? My guess is the methodology. No two researchers are ever alike. IDC's numbers often differ from those of its main rivals in the technology market research business: Gartner (NYSE: IT) and Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR).
My advice is to not get caught up in the specifics and look instead at the broader trend. I see two things here:
- Bing is better positioned than the rest of the second-tier search engines, even if Yahoo! is like an anchor.
- No one's touching Google.