Originally the deal was to include delivery of paid search (PPC) adverts, but due to dificulties merging the platforms the deal currently extends to the natural (organic) search results only.

The merger started in August 2010 in the USA and Canada and now it’s being rolled out in Europe, with Yahoo! properties presenting Microsoft Bing results in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

A Yahoo spokesman said:
“For Yahoo! this is an important step toward our goal of improving the overall relevance of Yahoo! organic search results and attracting a larger audience to Yahoo! Search. This transition will also enable both companies to continue to innovate on their respective consumer search experience, whilst relying on a common algorithm used by a combined user base.”

Since the launch of Bing, Microsoft have been attempting to improve the quality of their organic search results with ever more tweaks to the search algorithm, which comes under criticism for being too easy to manipulate by those with ill intentions. However there is hope that this merger will provide the funding and resources required to improve.

There is some speculation about how this merger will affect organic search traffic to websites, but given that Google has a 92% share of the search market in the UK (Bing & Yahoo! combined hold just 6.78%), it is not expected to be significant.

For those websites with a US audience the results may be a little more interesting, where combined, Bing & Yahoo claim 29.7% of the market; however the serving of Bing results to Yahoo! users was launched 12 months ago with little outcry from UK businesses.

The table below shows the market share of Yahoo! & Bing combined alongside that of Google in the key search markets in Europe:

So How Will it Affect Me?

In truth the answer is probably very little or not at all, but it’s important to look at your own website in isolation. If Yahoo traditionally provided visits & sales where Bing did not there is a chance that you’ll see some negative results from this merger, on the other hand if your keyword rankings were good in Bing but not Yahoo! you may see a small improvement.

If you’d like to discuss how this merger affects you in more detail or get advice on what to do next, get in touch with one of our SEO account executives who will be more than happy to discuss your website and how best to move forward.

Hosted at Microsoft’s London HQ, presenters included Orla Malone – Sales Associate UK and Ireland for Facebook, Director of Search at Bing – David Coplin and Colm Bracken – Microsoft Advertising’ Group Search Manager. It was a good turn out and some interesting case studies were delivered by Radisson Edwardian’s Amy Clarke, as well as some interesting insights into Microsofts steps to integrate Social and Search.
However throughout each of the presentations the elephant in the room was Google.

In the UK Google still holds 92.27% of the search market with the remaining 7.73% being split across Bing, Yahoo and other search sites according to StatCounter Global Stats data.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Search Engine Market Share

The US tells a different story however with Google only reporting to have 80% on Global stats but as little as 65.6% reported from ComScore for January 2011. However Google search on mobile is by far the dominant force in both UK and US.

The US search and social market leads the way for the UK and often we see the same or similar trends breaking in the US reflected in UK market. This would suggest that Bing’s Search Engine market share is likely to grow and that growth may be to Google’s detriment.

So what does this have to do with Facebook?

Well Microsoft and Facebook seemed very comfortable together and currently Bing provides the search results within Facebook. Facebook is the most used website in UK and with over 500 million global active users and 50% of them logging on every day, with this in mind if Facebook can integrate a search function that delivers the relevance at the quality of Google’s results then this may be a fighting force for Google. Whether they develop this themselves, partner with the likes of Bing to deliver the search results or if they move in this direction at all is something that Google must have on their radar.

The clear problem I see at the moment is Bing’s Search results are just not as relevant as Google’s.
To test this I ran a search for ’what is Quora?’ on Google and Bing and this was the result:

Bing is delivering Sponsored links for totally irrelevant ads to the search query as well as the natural listings being less relevant. The layout of the page even makes it difficult to find what you want and the related searches bear no relevance to Quora only the ‘what is’ part of my search query.
So Bing has a lot of work to do here in my opinion. But back to Facebook, if people are spending such huge amounts of time on Facebook every day, and this includes on their mobiles, tablets, PC’s and laptops, why not facilitate a search into the tool which allows users to stay in the Facebook environment but effectively search.

I then looked on Facebook to see what results were delivered on the same search for ‘What is Quora?’ to my surprise the results (which are powered by Bing) were more relevant than the Bing searches themselves? It displays fewer results but all are highly relevant to Quora.

There is no denying it Google have the Search market sussed at the moment, however in order to stay ahead of the curve and to drive search and social integration I am waiting to see there next move. Google’s search results currently integrate social results and often Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn results will populate the search engine results pages (SERPs) but what are they doing to engage with users on via social platforms?

Facebook on the other hand have their own challenges, people are there to communicate with friends and family, to share photo’s and updates on their lives, are they there to search? And if so what is the best way to facilitate that and try to take some of Google’s market share?

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!

According to ComScore, at the end of July Bing accounted for 8.9% of US search market share, up from 8.4% the previous month. Prior to this, The Seattle companies search platform accounted for less than 8% of market share.

ComScore also highlighted that search queries on Bing had increased by 2.4% through the month to 1.21bn.

Google maintained its dominant position as the number one search engine, with 64.7% of market share, although this was down slightly from 65%. Yahoo!, who last month agreed a search deal with Microsoft, saw its share slip from 19.6% to 19.3%.

In the UK Google has 79.7% of market share in contrast with its closest rival, Yahoo, on 4%.

There is no doubt that if you use paid search as a part of your online marketing strategy, Google has been front and center and an obvious choice for the past few years.  On the other hand, Microsoft’s search engine has all-too-often been viewed by marketers as a peripheral option and a non-essential media buy with not enough traffic to justify the time you would have to spend implementing and managing it. Because of this, it was common to simply be left off of the schedule entirely.

Since the new deal could deliver Bing as much as 28%* of the US search market share, or around 4.1 billion monthly searches, from the perspective as a marketer, the question is this; Is Bing now a must-have on the PPC media schedule?

Although the partnership will leave Bing far behind Google in terms of market share, Microsoft has eliminated a competitor and now has a fairly compelling argument to take to advertisers.

Assuming that Google does have to share the paid search media schedule with Bing, this perhaps leads to a more concerning question for the search giant; where is the budget going to come from?

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts

(* Yahoo! Sites – 20.1%, Microsoft Sites – 8.4% ComScore June ’09)

In essence, the fait accompli was almost inevitable given Google’s dominance in the search space. Alongside the worsening search ad revenues of the respective number 2 and 3 in the market, the Seattle giant really had to push this deal to appease shareholders. With both companies announcing poor results last week, the deal will also help boost moral and regain some bravado with disgruntled Microsoft  staff probably sick an tired of playing 2nd (& 3rd) fiddle to the incumbent leader.

So what does the future hold?

Well, if the recent uptake of Bing and the ongoing rebrand of Yahoo!, with it user generated facility is anything to go by; the folks at Mountain View may want to re examine where their focus lies. Mass investment in Android, Chrome OS, Maps/Street View etc, may be reviewed if the momentum in the tie-up gathers pace. Augmented to all the hoo-ha is the recent news that after 3 years, a $1billion investment made by Google for 5% of AOL was finally bought back by AOL’s parent, Time Warner for a mere $283 million. Do the math.

If I could be anywhere tonight– a fly on the wall with newly weds,  Bartz and Balmer would be my first choice….watch this space.

Despite not officially being launched until the 3rd June, Bing was out in the open at the start of the month and within hours its flaws and shortcomings were being found and shared across the web.

At the time of writing the latest issue is the video search that provides previews right on the page. This sounds great, and indeed it is until the web user’s inevitable hunt for sex related material offers up pornographic video without having to visit a website that would otherwise be blocked by firewalls and child security.

For those of you that will no doubt want to try it out (for educational reasons, of course) it’s just a matter of changing the results filter as below:

Or clicking here to run a video search on “sex” (adult content)

Moving switfly on…

So aside from some teething problems, how does Bing stand up as a search engine; does it have anything that can compete with the behemoth that is Google?

From an advertisers point of view only two things are really going to matter; volume and the advertising interface – both of which are notoriously bad. There’s no doubt the buzz will swell volumes and I can’t see how it won’t grow Microsoft’s market share, the question is by how much. I like a flutter now and again so I’m putting my money on 3-5% in the first six months. How about you?

From a users point of view; I like it. The new features aren’t intrusive to the browsing experience yet when needed offer great assistance in finding the information you’re after. I don’t think it’ll turn new users away, I’m just not convinced the new features are a big enough incentive to switch from Google.

I don’t think the US Promo TV advert is going to help with that either. bing!

However, as cute as this is – the key question from a marketing perspective is how is Microsoft is planning to generate traffic volume.

• The current adCenter platform for advertisers is a challenge.
• The volumes are not available and the interface itself a chore to use!
• How can you justify running on any advertising which is clearly costing you more to facilitate than the return achievable.

Due to some of these points, Microsoft Adcenter is often left off the media schedule. The benefits for pushing advertisers onto AdCenter rather than running the budget on Google is often overshadowed by the time and effort it takes to use the archaic functionality.

Bing has a great concept – ‘Help me decide what I am looking for’ and the hype around it so far is promising. However without the volumes it still remains dead in the water. Historically, Microsoft has paid people to use their search engine and this hasn’t worked before. Does it simply come back to the fact that Google’s search results are still more relevant?

Microsoft will have to do a lot more to have Google quaking in their boots – Bing or otherwise…