Google rival Bing receives a lukewarm reception
Almost 70% of respondents to MarketingWeek.co.uk’s latest poll will not abandon Google in favour of Microsoft-backed rival Bing.
Last month, Microsoft removed the beta tag from its Bing search engine and launched a series of ads with Global Radio to promote its rival to Google.
However, when asked if they would consider using Bing as an alternative to Google, only 25.7% of poll respondents said they would be happy to try Microsoft’s offering instead of Google.
Most voters said they would remain loyal to Google, with 69.5% rejecting the possibility of using Bing instead.
Bing’s launch follows a series of failed search launches by the computing giant, including Windows Live Search, which had a market share less than 1%.
Most recently, Microsoft reportedly offered to pay newspaper groups including News Corporation to remove content from Google and Yahoo! in return for exclusivity on Bing.
The new search engine is expected to merge with Yahoo! in the next few years as it bids to increase market share, though this deal is still subject to regulatory approval. In the meantime, Microsoft says it wants Bing to become the second most popular engine behind Google, and in front of Yahoo!
In the US, Microsoft has allocated about $100m (£61m) for marketing Bing and a spokesman for the company says that the search engine will receive “further consumer support in the UK next year” but would not comment further on future marketing plans.
Would you consider using a different search engine to Google now Microsoft has launched Bing?
