July was a good month for Microsoft in the UK search market, but was not so strong for the market leader Google, according to new research.
The data, from Hitwise, found Microsoft Sites reclaimed the number two spot in the search engine rankings list having dropped to third last month for the first time this year.
Microsoft Sites, led by the bing search engine, accounted for 3.84% of all UK Internet searches conducted in July 2011.
Microsoft Sites increased their market share within the Search category by 0.96% compared to June, and were also 0.67% up on July 2010. Google meanwhile had a reversal of fortunes, with a declining market share of searches in July of 0.98%. Google Sites were also marginally down year-on-year by 0.56%,but still accounted for over 91% of searches conducted by UK Internet users.
Yahoo! Sites increased their market share of visits slightly this month to account for 3% of all UK searches online and Ask Sites also made minor gains.
However, it was only Microsoft Sites which demonstrated any notable growth in the search market this month and bing was the only search engine to increase its market share of searches year-on-year between July 2010 and July 2011.
“Microsoft has recovered from last month’s blip to once again become the UK’s second most popular search provider,” commented Robin Goad, Research Director of Experian Hitwise. “The gains made by Microsoft Sites this month are almost exactly equal to the losses suffered by Google, which means that some of the searches that were being conducted on Google engines last month are now being typed into bing.
“In this constantly fluctuating search market, it’s important for brands to understand where people are searching for their products, and crucially how rankings, paid rates and search success rates can vary across the different search engines. The key for bing now is to hold on to its gains in the search market and build on its strengths which differentiate it from Google and the other engines.”
