Is Google really scared of Bing?

Is Google really scared of Bing?
by Andrew Grinaker, VP

The headline from Sunday's New York Post, "Fear Grips Google", would lead the average internet user to believe that Google is in fact scared of Bing and losing search market share.

The New York Post article states that Google co-founder and engineering genius Sergey Brin has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent updates to the Google search engine and review the advantages of Bing's search algorithm. Also stated in the article is how Brin himself will lead the team of specialists, something rarely seen since he stepped out of day to day operations.

As you should all know by now, Microsoft launched a $100 million advertising and marketing campaign for their new search engine Bing.com. Being located just miles from Microsoft campus, we have heard plenty about the search engine, including a beam of blue light being shot from the famous Space Needle in Seattle for promotional purposes.

Microsoft's main motivation for the new search engine was to attempt to gain market share in a search industry that has long been dominated by Google. Just before the launch Google had a 60 percent share, while MSN Live (the former Microsoft search) had an abysmal 8 percent share.

New search features and search categories have received a welcoming response from critics online. The new launch with Bing has provided decent returns with an increase to 11 percent market share, prompting articles such as the New York Post about Google becoming scare of the new "decision engine."

I am glad to see that Bing has provided an additional option for searching, but we are very far away from Bing taking chunks of Google's market share from them. People have long used Google.com and like the fact that it is simple and easy to use. Sergey Brin wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't try to uncover advantages in Bing's algorithm or make improvements to his own search engine.

Bing has done a good job at causing a stir, but until Microsoft starts reaching at least 1 in 4 search users (25%) instead of 1 in 9 search users (11%), I can't believe that Google is actually scared or "gripped with fear."