New search engine Bing helped Microsoft increase its share of the search market in the United States in June but still lags behind Yahoo! and Google, a Web analytics firm reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
StatCounter said Microsoft carved out an 8.23 percent share of the US search market in June, up from 7.21 percent in April and 7.81 percent in May.<\/p>\n
Yahoo!’s share of the search market was 11.04 percent in June, up from 10.99 percent in May but down from 11.27 percent in April.<\/p>\n
Google continued to dominate the search market with a 78.48 percent share in June, down slightly from 78.72 percent in May and 79.07 percent in April.<\/p>\n
“At first sight, a one percent increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing, but the underlying trend appears positive,” said StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen.<\/p>\n
“Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date,” Cullen said in a statement.<\/p>\n
StatCounter said that globally, Microsoft increased its search market share from 3.08 percent in April to 3.30 percent in June.<\/p>\n
Yahoo! fell from 5.48 percent in April to 5.15 percent in June while Google remained steady at 89.80 percent.<\/p>\n
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer earlier this month downplayed expectations for the success of Bing, but said the company was committed to challenge Google over the long-term.<\/p>\n
The initial response to Bing has been “very good” Ballmer said, but it will not displace Google anytime soon.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to overset expectations. We’re going to have to be tenacious and keep up the pace of innovation over a long period of time,” Ballmer told an economic summit in Detroit, Michigan.<\/p>\n
Bing replaces MSN Live Search, which has languished in a distant third place behind market-leading Google and second-place Yahoo!<\/p>\n