• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 1, 2009

Microsoft's new search engine Bing continues to take share from Google, Yahoo and Ask, albeit small. In June, Google shows a .3% drop, Yahoo a .17% drop, and Ask a .1% drop in usage share, according to NetApplications, a research firm.

Vince Vizzaccaro called it a "rare occurrence" when Google loses share to another company. The EVP of marketing and strategic alliances at NetApplications doesn't think it's enough to make advertisers and marketers rethink their strategy. It will take continued growth from Bing before advertisers jump in with both feet and pockets full of money.

"It's a matter of mindshare," Vizzaccaro says. "Google holds the same advantage in search engines as Microsoft holds in operating systems. When you're fighting the entrenched leader you have to find something bigger and better."

Considering that Microsoft locked consumers into Internet Explorer (IE), as well as Word, Excel and other desktop software applications, it's unusual that the Redmond Wash. company also failed to dominate the search engine space.

Microsoft IE holds the No. 1 position in market share. In May 2009, IE held 65.5% of the browser PC market; Firefox, 22.51%; Safari, 8.43%; and Chrome, 1.80%. For mobile, Google dominates the search engine market share for mobile at 97.55%.

Aaron Goldman, Connectual.com founder, says for marketers the NetApplications numbers are "meaningless, because no one will change their SEO, PPC or display ad buys based on those search engine market share numbers."

But a look at numbers from StatCounter and the Web analytics firm could have marketers starting to consider budget reallocations. In June, Bing increased Microsoft's share of the search market by 1% in the U.S. Microsoft had 8.23% market share, trailing Yahoo at 11.04%, according to StatCounter Global Stats.

If those numbers are not enough to move marketers toward Bing, then perhaps comScore's findings should be considered. Stats posted June 17 to the comScore blog reveal that Bing's market share continues to grow.

According to the blog post, U.S. searchers reached 16.7% during the work week between June 8 and 12 -- up 3% from the May 25-29 work week prior to Bing's introduction. Microsoft's share of search result pages in the U.S. -- a proxy for overall search -- increased to 12.1% between June 8 and 12, also climbing 3% from the pre-introduction work week between May 25 and 29.