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 line with the most recent numbers from market tracker StatCounter, Google’s market share of search in the USA in October was 88.1%, a slight improve 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 cell 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 International 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 trying to find to pry some search market share from Google. Apparently, that hasn’t been the case.
A deployment determination by Microsoft might have contributed to its incapability to transform its early AI benefit into a bigger share of search, famous Greg Sterling, co-founder of Close to 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 the Edge browser,” he advised TechNewsWorld. “Microsoft thought it will be a solution 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 facility 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 Analysis in San Jose, Calif.
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“Regardless of developments in AI algorithms, Bing struggles to compete with Google’s entrenched dominance,” he advised 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 job 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 companies agency in Bend, Ore., identified that Google is an entrenched vendor.
“It takes fairly a bit to take down an entrenched vendor,” he advised TechNewsWorld. “Folks 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 acquired to make individuals dislike the software they’re utilizing as a result of if the software they’re utilizing is nice sufficient, they don’t care,” he mentioned.
“You’ve acquired to persuade individuals not solely that your software is healthier, however you’ve acquired 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 utility 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 study Boolean logic to do Google proper,” he quipped.
“It’s a robust platform, however 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 must be with the intention to pull and maintain market share from Google and the place it’s vital.
“Microsoft wanted to go farther with generative AI so you 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 court docket system can. Two antitrust trials are at the moment 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, in opposition to Google for antitrust points associated to in-game fee processing on the Google Play platform. The case alleges that Google has created an unlawful monopoly on Android apps primarily to spice up its income by 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, similar to requiring its search to be the default on Android units;
Makes use of its search dominance to present its personal companies an illegal benefit over opponents;
Suppresses competitors in promoting expertise markets by exclusionary conduct; and
Stifles competitors and harms shoppers by much less alternative, decrease high quality, and better costs for on-line companies.
Will Authorized Circumstances 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 fabric affect on Google. Folks will proceed to make use of it,” Sterling mentioned.
“The ad-side might provide extra vital choices for the court docket,” he continued. “Proper now, there aren’t a whole lot of issues that the court docket can do on the patron aspect to have an effect on Google utilization.”
What the court docket 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 straight away.”
