Microsoft May Bing Google as Wave Grabs Market

There’s been much ado about Microsoft ‘s Bing, and plenty of wonder around Google Wave. Although the Internet archrivals’ new offerings don’t compete directly, they do indirectly: Bing with Google Search and Wave with Microsoft’s ecosystem

Currently Google has the largest market share in search and Microsoft is dominant in desktop PC software. Observers wonder if each will cut into the other’s domain or if the status quo will be maintained.

“Bing will certainly take share from Google’s search business, but isn’t strong enough to challenge Google’s overall leadership, making it an approach mirrored by Microsoft’s efforts with Zune,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “Wave represents an effort to displace Microsoft entirely, but has a higher probability of failing completely and is also consistent with Google’s strategy with apps.”

Google’s Scattered Focus

The latest buzz on Bing is that the new search engine — or decision engine, as Microsoft likes to call it — might catch on with Internet advertisers or mobile users. That in itself would be a blow to Google. But that’s not Bing’s value proposition as Microsoft communicated it.

“Bing focuses on a few things that people do a lot online, like shopping and health-care research, and improves them substantially so the customer gets to a meaningful result much more quickly,” Enderle said. “If the model holds, Microsoft will wrap this with a marketing program that identifies the problem, establishes it as a problem Google has failed to address – Read more

Microsoft Bing a good start, but no game changer

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, will help the company gain some search share against Google and has features that users will find helpful, but it is in no way a quick fix for the company’s poor position in the search market, analysts said.

As expected, on Thursday Microsoft revealed a rebranded and expanded search engine, which it’s promoting as a “decision engine” aimed at helping people better organize search information and find what they’re looking for more quickly. The news came after months of speculation about what Microsoft would call its next iteration of Live Search and what new features it would have.

To help users find information more quickly, Bing’s algorithm ranks search results based on how relevant they were for other users. The interface also organizes results according to subcategories, depending on the search term, so that people can find the next likely piece of information they may be looking for quickly.

While some of these features deliver better search results than Google’s in a side-by-side comparison, it’s not a drastic enough change to make people migrate in droves, said Greg Sterling, a search analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence.

“It’s a strong first step or a new salvo for them, but it’s not going to dramatically alter the market as it stands today,” and Microsoft recognizes this, he said. “Microsoft doesn’t see this as the end of the process; they see this as a new beginning. I think there are interesting things they can do to continue to advance the features.”

Sterling said Bing may not pull much share from Google, but it could lure users away from the search engines of AOL, Ask.com and possibly Yahoo, though Microsoft is still rumored to be close to some kind of search deal with Yahoo, which of course would change the competitive landscape.

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