Microsoft readies newest consumer search product

First we had Wolfram Alpha--which I wrote about last week in "Wolfram Alpha doesn't impress me [1]"--now we have Bing, the name many feel that Microsoft will give its newest search offering, which until now has been code-named Kumo. Reports abound that Microsoft will be releasing Bing--or whatever they end up calling it--within the next week or so, perhaps even this week at the Wall Street Journal D Conference [2].

Meanwhile, Ad Age reports [3] that Microsoft will spend as much as $100 million on an ad campaign in an attempt to lure people away from Google Search. As I wrote this week in my DaniWeb TechTreasures blog, "Microsoft Ad Wars Turn to Google [4]," advertising isn't worth the effort. Even if it's a good tool, which nobody knows for sure yet, it doesn't mean that it will gain any significant market share.

Considering the most recent Comscore data for April, Microsoft has only 8.2 percent of all search data. I can say from personal experience, from looking at statistics across the various properties I write for, that Google accounts for the vast majority of traffic from search engines. In fact, 8.2 percent is so low that even if Bing were a startling success and they doubled that number, they would still be a spec in the rear view mirror of consumer search leader, Google, which holds more than 64 percent of market share.

So it will be interesting to see what Microsoft has to offer with Bing, but whether it has any significant or meaningful impact on the overall search market is highly doubtful. More than likely it will be just another day in consumer search. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Related Articles:
One on One with Nitin Mangtani of Google Search Appliance [5]
Wolfram Alpha doesn't impress me [1]
Three interesting new search tools [6]
How effective is enterprise search? [7]