Google Still King, but Search Effectiveness Goes to Bing

According to the latest survey from the research firm, Experian Hitwise, Google continues to reign as the dominant search engine accounting for 66.05 percent of all U.S. searches in July. While it’s heaps beyond what Bing managed to direct at 28.05 percent, the report also found that while Google may control the majority the search market, queries made through Microsoft's Bing search engine lead users to click on a Web page at a moderately higher rate than queries made through Google. Gauging “success rates,” defined as the percentage of search queries that result in a visit to a website, they reported that Bing searches in the U.S. in July posted a success rate of 80.04 percent compared to 67.56 percent for Google. They also indicated that searches made though Yahoo owned sites, incidentally farmed out to Bing under a deal struck in 2009, also had a higher success rate, posting at 81.36 percent. The numbers could aid Microsoft boost its revenue from online services, as they show marketers that keywords purchased on Bing-powered sites have a better click-through rate than those purchased on Google. Even though Google has been dropping slightly from its share since November of last year, it is still hands down the premier search engine, not to mention a gargantuan juggernaut of a company. Experian’s survey does manage to shine some light on Bing’s progress and the numbers could help Microsoft boost its revenue from online services, as they show marketers that keywords purchased on Bing-powered sites have a better click-through rate than those purchased on Google.