It’s been almost a month since Bing launched its Bing It On campaign — a sort of taste-test challenge comparing Bing’s and Google’s organic search results. And now, after an independent survey of about 4,700 people who took the challenge, Bing is touting how it’s changing the attitudes of many testers: We asked for people’s […]
It’s been almost a month since Bing launched its Bing It On campaign — a sort of taste-test challenge comparing Bing’s and Google’s organic search results.
And now, after an independent survey of about 4,700 people who took the challenge, Bing is touting how it’s changing the attitudes of many testers:
We asked for people’s impressions of Bing before taking the Challenge and then after they completed it. What we found was 64% of people were surprised by the quality of Bing’s web search results. Over half of the people surveyed indicated their impression of Bing improved after seeing Bing’s web search results next to Google’s. Additionally, of people who identified Google as their primary search engine, 33% said they would use Bing more often after taking the Challenge and 17% who found Bing more favorable after taking the side-by-side comparison said it revealed flaws in Google’s results.
It’s certainly positive news for Bing, but the obvious question is whether the Bing It On challenge will actually move the dial for Bing’s U.S. market share. Survey takers are often guilty of saying one thing — i.e., “I’ll use Bing more often” — and doing another.
As Bing admits today, search habits are hard to break. Even though Bing’s market share is at an all-time high right now, it has a long way to go to catch Google.
Bing also says that its Bing It On challenge has had five million visits, but didn’t say how many followed through on taking the challenge. The challenge will continue and Bing says this is “just the start” of its efforts to change what it calls “the Google habit.”
