Bing

The Bing app for mobile phones that use the Android operating system is receiving high marks from reviewers. Essentially, the Microsoft’s Bing app, which has just been released, is a mobile version of its internet search engine, but the transition naturally involves a few tweaks.

The mobile version of Bing is apparently tuned in to the kind of information that you are more likely to be after when you are on your mobile as opposed to your PC or laptop. This means that it can cleverly target what you want when you are on the move.

The features that are immediately noticeable alongside the usual web search and image search options are searches for directions, maps, movies and a special feature that can pinpoint amenities in your local area by linking up with the phone’s GPS.

The fact that all of this comes in one app is the thing that is currently impressing most reviewers. Users can find all the different bits of information they want without having to launch all sorts of different apps at once. It is effectively a one-stop-shop for answers on the move.

At this moment in time, only Verizon customers can use the Bing app, but it is likely to be available on a much wider scale in the near future.

Google’s dominance is something that rival search engines have sought to try and topple, but have had little success on their own. Google has recently been reported as the most visible brand in the UK so it is little surprise that competitors are struggling to keep up.

One way that two of Google’s biggest rivals have sought to try and get a foothold in the market that Google appears to have cornered is actually joining forces in the name of one common interest: halting Google’s supremacy online.

Microsoft and Yahoo! are coming together in the hope that their combined expertise will give them a greater chance of standing up to Google. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, will now act as the major processing mechanism behind Yahoo! search, but the joint effort will only be available to users in the US and Canada.

The agreement is initially for ten years and the companies are planning to move into markets outside North America over the course of the decade. This will include plans for multi-lingual search platforms.

Google has so far come out on top in the race for internet domination, but Microsoft and Yahoo! hope that together they will put up more of a fight.

Google is still way out in front in terms of US search engine market share, but Yahoo! did make slight inroads last month.

Google had 65.8 per cent of the market, according to comScore figures, which represented a 0.4 per cent drop compared to June. Yahoo! which is in second place, seems to have taken that sliver, as it was up by the same amount to 17.1 per cent.

Bing remains in third place and retains the same percentage of searchers – 11 per cent. In June, Bing had seen greater growth. It went from 12.1 per cent of the market in May to 12.7 per cent in June.

Experian Hitwise figures show a similar overall picture. They have Google with 71.43 per cent, Yahoo! with 14.43 per cent and Bing with 9.86 per cent.

The Experian Hitwise figures are further broken down into different categories and the most interesting figure is perhaps the rise in shopping-related searches on Bing, which has seen an 84 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

Bing’s executives have admitted there is “a long road ahead” for the relatively new search engine at a recent Microsoft conference. But the newbie has made giant strides over the last few months and now holds about 12.7% of the market share in the US, according to ComScore.

It comes as little surprise that Google still tops the user leaderboard with a 62.6% share. Second place goes to Yahoo with 18.9%.

Contributing editor to Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling stated:

“Google is very entrenched in the culture and in people’s behaviour and that is a tough nut to crack,”

“If Bing takes a long-term view they can make greater inroads than they have but I don’t know if they can get beyond 30-40%. If they get to 20% plus that would be a big win for them.”

Bing was launched by Microsoft to a huge fanfare in June 2009 as a “decision engine” and Microsoft have invested heavily in getting more users to visit the site.

Google still holds the market share and have been recently buoyed by the news that Yahoo is mainly going to use Bing for its searches, so in essence it has lost a rival.

A judge in Pakistan has asked the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block user access to three of the most significant sites on the net – Google, Yahoo! and YouTube.

The order has been passed due to the sites featuring material which the judge deemed to be ‘against the fundamental principles of Islam’.

Access to Facebook was blocked for a fortnight for Pakistani users last month after a page asked people to draw Muhammad. Other sites have also been blocked due to blasphemy.

However, the PTA has yet to receive the order, saying:

“We have not yet received any directives from the ministry of information technology. The ministry is the decision-making authority.”

The Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan reacted angrily to the judgement:

“If implemented, the decision will choke internet users. It will seriously impact millions of Internet users in Pakistan who use search engines for email, education, business and other productive purposes.”

The Pakistan daily newspaper, Dawn, was equally unimpressed, pointing out that search engines cannot be held responsible for all the information they present to users. They point out that anyone finding offensive content via Google, Yahoo! or Bing was most likely looking for it.