Why Microsoft Isn't Going To Give Up On Bing (MSFT, GOOG)

Microsoft is burning $2.5+ billion annually online, as it tries to catch up with Google in search through Bing.

This prompted the pundits at BreakingViews to suggest it was time for Microsoft to sell off Bing because it's a distraction.

Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley has an answer to that suggestion: Fat chance.

She says, "While the world sees Bing as a distant No. 2 search engine, Microsoft brass and bean counters see Bing as a reusable component and asset that will be built into more and more products."

What kind of products? Foley explains:

There's already a Bing button in every Windows Phone 7-based device. And with the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 "Mango" OS release, there will be even more Bing functions. Bing Vision, the Microsoft equivalent of Google Goggles, is built into Windows Phone 7 Mango. This allows users to take pictures of bar-code-like tags -- and, for those in the United States and certain other countries, product labels, books, CDs, DVDs and so on -- and obtain instant information about them. Mango also includes Bing Audio, Redmond's competitor to Shazam, which helps phone users find information about (and purchase) music they hear and don't recognize. There's also Bing Scout, a local-search capability that zeroes in on sights, retail outlets and upcoming events in a user's geographical area.

The 'Softies also see Bing as an integral feature in the coming Windows Live TV service. The service, the next-generation mashup of IPTV and Xbox Live expected to be available later this fall, integrates the Kinect sensor. Microsoft is using Bing to let users of this service search for TV shows, movies and music with their voices.

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See Also:

• Microsoft Is Redoing Bing To Look More Like The New Windows Design
• THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Should Microsoft Cut Its Losses And Sell Its Online Business?
• Here's Why The Bing-Yahoo Deal Isn't Working So Far

Why Microsoft Isn't Going To Give Up On Bing (MSFT, GOOG)

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CHART OF THE DAY: This Is What Microsoft Is Getting For Its Big Bing Investment

After spending billions of dollars over the last two years fighting Google with Bing, what does Microsoft have to show for it?

Not much from a marketshare perspective. The latest comScore data shows Bing's share is at 14.4%, and it's not exactly growing like a weed. 

If you're looking for something positive in here from Microsoft's perspective, it's that Google's share has been stalled at 65% in the U.S.

Don't Miss: Can We Stop Pretending Bing Is Doing Well?

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See Also:

• Zynga, Hulu And GoDaddy: Where 15 Of The Strangest Company Names Came From
• Ballmer Talks About How Skype Will Fit Into Microsoft
• Google's Photovine Site Is Live -- It Looks Like A Photo-Sharing Service

CHART OF THE DAY: This Is What Microsoft Is Getting For Its Big Bing Investment

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Bing Maps Road Map Style Update Goes Live!

Bing Maps team has released a dozen of changes to base road map style. "The new style is designed to communicate more important information at a glance. We have just finished rolling out our English version of this new style, and you will see French, Flemish, German, Italian, and Spanish rolling out over the next week or so," revealed Bing Maps team.

Bing Maps Road Map Style Update Goes Live!

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SEARCH SHARE DATA OUT: Google, Bing Up, Yahoo Down (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO)

March search share data from comScore is out.

Google and Bing are up slightly, while Yahoo is down slightly.

Here's the details from Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali.

Google and Bing gained slight market share M/M. Google gained about 29 bps to 65.7% in March vs. 65.4% in February while Yahoo! lost 38bps to 15.7%. Bing took some M/M share during March mostly from AOL (AOL, Hold, PT $26) and Yahoo!, and was up 31 bps from January to 13.9%. For 1Q11, Google had 65.6% market share down from 66.4% a quarter ago, while Yahoo! was slightly down to 16.0% vs. 16.3%. Bing had the highest Q/Q gain (about 117bps) from 11.8% during 4Q10 to 13.6% during 1Q11. It's important to note, however, that comScore's qSearch data excludes international and mobile searches (android has the largest marketshare among smartphones at ~31%), as well as video searches on sites like YouTube. All of these are becoming an increasing part of Google's overall traffic, and growing faster than US desktop search. By some estimates, Google has 97% of the mobile search market. (please see our eWeekly report dated 3/10/11 for details).

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See Also:

• THE MICROSOFT INVESTOR: Windows 7 Overtakes XP As Leading OS In The U.S.
• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: The Shopping Spree Continues – ITA Approved, Clean Energy, Music Platform...What's Next, Larry?
• Bing Plus Yahoo Now Equals Yahoo's Market Share In 2005

SEARCH SHARE DATA OUT: Google, Bing Up, Yahoo Down (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO)

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Bing News Search Results Adds Twitter ‘Tweets’

Bing is reported to have added tweets on the Bing News search results pages. The tweets are public updates from the Twitter stream related to the news query, revealed a tweet from Min-John (MJ) Lee, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft Bing news and real-time search.

Bing News Search Results Adds Twitter ‘Tweets’

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Microsoft Adds Daily Deals To Bing (MSFT, GOOG)

Microsoft will incorporate daily deals and discounts into Bing search results through a partnership with The Dealmap.The move gives Microsoft another weapon against Google, who failed to acquire Groupon after bidding a reported $6 billion late last year.

The biggest change will be in the Bing mobile app a new Deals tab will provide a list of all deals near the user, organized by size of discount and location. Users will then be able to redeem the deal, save it on their phones for later use, or send it to a friend.

On the Bing Web site, users will have to click through to local results before seeing the deal -- for instance, a search on "sushi in San Francisco" will show a list of nearby sushi places; click through to find more information and deals will appear where available. Eventually, Microsoft says it will incorporate Dealmap deals into the main page of search results.

Dealmap aggregates deals from more than 200 sources, including big daily deals sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, and has more than 400,000 deals on the site on any given day. The company has grown quickly, gathering more than 1.4 million users in about nine months.

In December, the company launched DealExchange, an API which lets developers build Dealmap functionality right into their own Web sites or applications. Now, Bing has become the latest partner to use DealExchange.

One complication: The Dealmap uses Google Maps to display its maps today. The Bing deal won't change that. But the CTO of Dealmap's parent company Center'd is Chandu Thota, who previously led development for Bing Maps, so the company is very familiar with how Microsoft's mapping service works and could be making a switch in the future.

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Microsoft Adds Daily Deals To Bing (MSFT, GOOG)

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