Experian Hitwise: Bing and Ask searches increase in January 2010
According to Experian Hitwise data released today, searches on Bing increased 5 percent and search on Ask increased 4 percent in January 2010, while searches on Google decreased 1 percent and searches on Yahoo! decreased 2 percent.
In terms of market share, Google accounted for 71.5 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending Jan. 31, 2010. Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask.com received 14.6 percent, 9.4 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. The remaining 65 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.9 percent of U.S. searches.
So, what does this mean to marketers?
Keep you eye on Google. It’s still the 800 pound gorilla in search. But it’s time to give a second look at Bing and Ask.
One of the ways you can do that is by attending SES New York 2010. Yusef Mehdi, Senior Vice President of the Online Audience Business, Bing, will be one of the keynote speakers.
Mehdi has revenue and market share responsibility for the Bing and MSN businesses at Microsoft. His team leads global product management, strategic partnerships, business development and US marketing execution.
Before his current role, Mehdi served as Microsoft’s chief advertising strategist and senior vice president of Strategic Partnerships. He negotiated a number of strategic agreements, including the $6 billion purchase of aQuantive, Inc.
Previously, Mehdi led research and development for the Information Services division during which time he led an 1,800-person engineering team to develop and launch Microsoft’s initial web search platform and next generation advertising platform in Microsoft adCenter.
Prior, Mehdi was responsible for the marketing of Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 1.0 through 5.0, and under his direction, Internet Explorer became the world’s most popular software for browsing the Web.
Mehdi began his career at Microsoft in 1992, playing key roles in the launch and marketing of Microsoft Windows, including the notable releases of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
Before joining Microsoft in 1992, Mehdi was a product manager at Reuters Group PLC, where he helped roll out the first PC-based Reuters Terminal, which became the standard computing platform for the company.
Mehdi earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Why all the focus on his bio? If you want to understand the algorithm, then you need to understand the engineer who created it. And if you want to find out where Bing is going, then you want to hear from the executive who has revenue and market share responsibility for it.
Get it? Got it? Good.