Bing Vs Google

The fight is getting interesting. Just when we started to right off Bing due to many reasons, things start to change.

Has anyone noticed how Bing is pushing hard on TV advertising? How could you miss it! Back to back decision engine adverts filling a whole 3 minute commercial slot. It seems that Microsoft have finally put some money towards trying to push Bing to become a viable competitor to Google.

After Bing had a disappointing launch a year ago, advertisers have been made to struggle with small traffic volumes and a frustrating interface to try to manage our client’s accounts. Not only this but there seemed to be no support or drive from Microsoft to make Bing a compelling platform to use and therefore trying to manage this platform on behalf of clients has been a challenge. The most compelling step was them joining forces with Yahoo to make the 2nd and 3rd search engines in UK a possible threat to Google. However this is going to take time and we won’t expect to see any impact or changes until at least 2011. This will be a long process and I am sure there will be some teething problems as the two platforms merge and ultimately they have less than 10% market share.

However, Bing is becoming more aggressive with their advertising, updates and with their market share. Of course they are no Google at the moment but perhaps part of the reason for that is no one outside of the advertising industry knows what Bing is? I speak to my family and friends and there is a complete lack of awareness of the platform. If Bing can tackle this at least they will be giving themselves a chance and this seems to be something they are working on.

But am I getting my hopes up? Google market share in UK currently sits at over 90% according to statcounter.com, making them by far the dominant leader in the search market. Can Bing actually get to where they need to be? Or will Social platforms become the force to take on Google. (this is another story and debate)

On the other hand there was a clear buzz around Google’s background images yesterday and opinions on how they had flattered Bing by copying their look and feel. Does this mean Google see them a threat? They certainly got a lot of press, even though this was the voiced frustrations of those trying to remove the enraging backgrounds! But compare for yourself? They are not that similar are they?

The time has come where we need to see results from Bing. As advertisers we need efficient ways of managing these accounts, yes there are numerous 3rd party tools out their with API feeds at a cost but if the volumes of traffic and spends are not there both Bing and Yahoo become an ineffective use of account managers time.

I am personally hoping to see Bing driving forward and offering advertisers a compelling platform and over a year I have been waiting in anticipation. However, for now Google is still the clear leader here; maybe Facebook can give them a run for their money!