24/7 Wall St.

comScore has released a new round of data showing that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is still stealing from the boys over at Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and other search leaders.  It looks as though that Bing saw its average daily searcher penetration and share of search result pages in the U.S. continue to climb during the second week of Bing’s introduction.  The more gains we see for Bing, the chances are that any deal with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) head lower and lower.

Microsoft Sites’ average daily penetration among U.S. searchers hit 16.7% in the work week of June 8-12.  That is a gain of about 3% from the May 25-29 work week before Bing’s introduction.

This also shows that Microsoft’s share of search result pages in the U.S. rose to 12.1% during the period of June 8-12.  That is also a 3% gain from the pre-introduction work week of May 25 to May 29.

Below is a summary of the survey from home, work, and university locations. Searcher Penetration (Avg. Daily) for the week of May 25-29 was 13.7%, June 1-5 was 15.8%, and June 8-12 was 16.7%.  Share of search result pages for the week of May 25-29 was 9.1%, June 1-5 was 11.3%, and June 8-12 was 12.1%.

There is a definite point here.  It is too soon to tell if Bing will really give Google a run for its money long-term.  Ditto for Yahoo!.  There has to be at least some of a freshness and the “finally something new” factor that is playing into its popularity.  How well the search engine does ahead will depend on the quality of the results and how the search consumer continues to feel about it.

Regardless of who is in charge, there is always this nagging lesson for internet companies of all sorts.  Any kid on the block may grow up to own the block.  At least for a while.  That is the beauty of the internet.  And its curse.

Jon C. Ogg

June 17, 2009