As the U.S. paid search market improved 5.8% in the third quarter compared to last year, Bing increased ad revenue by 21%. This while Google gained 7.9% year over year, and Yahoo, a search partner with Bing, actually lost 10%.
Google still holds a vast majority in U.S. ad spend with 80.2% of the market, the largest share since SearchIgnite began tracking search engine market share data since the beginning of 2007. But, a 21% jump for Bing has to be extremely encouraging for Microsoft investors. And marketers may be starting to see Bing as a viable competitor to Google.
But again, Bing advertising revenue can only be as strong as their search engine is at attracting search engine users. And with Google Chrome rapidly gaining market share, and Google TV looking to lead the new niche industry, it’s going to be hard for Bing to gain new users.