Regardless of Microsoft’s introduction of generative AI into its search engine Bing, the corporate has failed to chop into the share of market chief Google.
In accordance with the most recent numbers from market tracker StatCounter, Google’s market share of search in the US in October was 88.1%, a slight enhance over its October share in 2022 of 86.75%.
In the meantime, Bing’s market share for a similar interval declined from 7.4% in 2022 to six.92% in 2023.
Third-place participant DuckDuckGo’s share additionally suffered a year-over-year decline from 2.34% to 1.91%.
Google’s search share was even stronger worldwide, garnering 91.55%, in comparison with Bing’s 3.11%.
Bing’s share of worldwide desktop searches was higher at 9.14%, though nonetheless dropping from 9.92% in 2022.
In worldwide cellular searches — the place Google has a dominant 94.93% place — Bing is ranked fourth (0.53%) behind Russian search engine Yandex (1.64%) and China’s Baidu (1.2%).
Search Engine Market Share Worldwide: October 2022 – October 2023
Supply: StatCounter Global Stats
Microsoft’s Strategic Misstep in AI Deployment
When Microsoft introduced in February that it was incorporating AI into Bing, some tech pundits predicted the transfer would give the corporate the lever it had lengthy been looking for to pry some search market share from Google. Apparently, that hasn’t been the case.
A deployment choice by Microsoft might have contributed to its incapacity to transform its early AI benefit into a bigger share of search, famous Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a information, commentary and evaluation web site, and a former contributing editor to Search Engine Land.
“Bing with ChatGPT was initially solely accessible by means of the Edge browser,” he informed TechNewsWorld. “Microsoft thought it will be a strategy to get individuals to obtain Edge. They need to have simply made AI instantly accessible throughout browsers.”
“That’s a part of it,” he continued. “The opposite half is individuals are habituated to Google. Pundits underestimate the ability of inertia and behavior.”
Microsoft’s integration of AI into Bing has not given it any substantial traction within the aggressive search market, noticed Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.
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“Regardless of developments in AI algorithms, Bing struggles to compete with Google’s entrenched dominance,” he informed TechNewsWorld. “Customers understand Google’s search outcomes as extra correct and pertinent, making a problem for Microsoft to draw and retain a big consumer base.”
“The search engine enviornment is fiercely contested, and Google’s established consumer habits make it tough for Bing’s AI enhancements to drive a notable shift in market share. Microsoft continues to grapple with the formidable activity of altering consumer preferences within the face of Google’s search supremacy,” he added.
Google’s Dominance as an Entrenched Search Engine Vendor
Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst on the Enderle Group, an advisory providers agency in Bend, Ore., identified that Google is an entrenched vendor.
“It takes fairly a bit to take down an entrenched vendor,” he informed TechNewsWorld. “Individuals construct up habits. They’re used to utilizing Google.”
He defined that a considerable amount of advertising is required to displace an entrenched vendor. “You’ve bought to make individuals dislike the instrument they’re utilizing as a result of if the instrument they’re utilizing is sweet sufficient, they don’t care,” he mentioned.
“You’ve bought to persuade individuals not solely that your instrument is best, however you’ve bought to persuade them that what they’re utilizing isn’t adequate,” he added.
Getting individuals to make use of the brand new AI Bing offered them with a pair of challenges, he continued, shifting them to a brand new software after which inducing them to make use of AI.
“There’s a studying curve to doing AI proper, and we’re speaking about many individuals who couldn’t be taught Boolean logic to do Google proper,” he quipped.
“It’s a robust platform, nevertheless it requires coaching to make use of it, and folks don’t like to coach,” he added.
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Enderle maintained that the separation between the place Bing needs to be in an effort to pull and maintain market share from Google and the place it’s vital.
“Microsoft wanted to go farther with generative AI so you possibly can simply ask it a query verbally and get the curated response you need,” he mentioned. “That wasn’t what was introduced out, and the consequence was not as many individuals gravitated to it as Microsoft thought they’d.”
Antitrust Trials and Tribulations
If AI can’t enhance the search share of Google’s opponents, then possibly the courtroom system can. Two antitrust trials are presently difficult the search chief’s alleged monopolistic practices.
In San Francisco, a trial is underway to settle a lawsuit filed by Epic Video games, the studio behind the favored recreation Fortnite, towards Google for antitrust points associated to in-game cost processing on the Google Play platform. The case alleges that Google has created an unlawful monopoly on Android apps primarily to spice up its earnings by means of commissions starting from 15% to 30% on purchases made inside an app.
In the meantime, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Division of Justice and Google are wrangling in a courtroom over alleged antitrust violations by the search chief. The DOJ contends Google:
- Makes use of exclusionary agreements and practices to dominate the search engine market, resembling requiring its search to be the default on Android gadgets;
- Makes use of its search dominance to present its personal providers an illegal benefit over opponents;
- Suppresses competitors in promoting expertise markets by means of exclusionary conduct; and
- Stifles competitors and harms customers by means of much less alternative, decrease high quality, and better costs for on-line providers.
Will Authorized Instances Have an effect on Google’s Search Supremacy?
If Google loses the DOJ case, will its search share be affected?
“If the default search relationships are ended, that will not have a cloth affect on Google. Individuals will proceed to make use of it,” Sterling mentioned.
“The ad-side might supply extra vital choices for the courtroom,” he continued. “Proper now, there aren’t a variety of issues that the courtroom can do on the buyer aspect to have an effect on Google utilization.”
What the courtroom decides to be a treatment for Google’s monopolistic practices will decide if there’s any change in the established order, Enderle added.
“If it’s only a financial hit that Google can afford, there’ll be no distinction,” he mentioned. “But when it’s an enormous financial hit — as we noticed when the EU hit Microsoft with billion-dollar fines — Google might change instantly.”
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