Bing! A Good Start, But Sustaining Search Success Is Microsoft's Big Challenge

Bing! A Good Start, But Sustaining Search Success Is Microsoft's Big Challenge

Microsoft Bing Seeing Early Success, ComScore Says

Microsoft Bing Seeing Early Success, ComScore Says

Bing! Microsoft (MSFT) is finding some early success for its new search engine, according to new data from market research firm ComScore.

ComScore compared the performance of Microsoft’s search sites in the period from May 26-May 30, before the service went live, with searches in the period June 2-June 6, once it became available.

“Searcher penetration,” the percentage of U.S. search engine users who make use of the company’s search engine on any given day, improved in that period to 15.5% from 13.8%. And Microsoft’s share of search results pages increased to 11.1%, from 9.1%.

“These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft’s position in the search market,” ComScore VP Mike Hurt said in a statement. “So far it appears that the lifts in search penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period…It appears it is off to a good start.”
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/#mod=BOL_hpp_blog_techtrader

Microsoft's Bing Draws Pre-Launch Kudos

Microsoft's Bing Draws Pre-Launch Kudos
6/2/2009

Can Bing boost Microsoft's market share against Google and Yahoo? After seeing the updated search engine in action, Barron's thinks it very well may.

China launches crackdown on pornography, targeting Google, other portals, search engines

China targets Google in crackdown on pornography
China launches crackdown on pornography, targeting Google, other portals, search engines

(From Yahoo Business News) BEIJING (AP) -- China launched a major crackdown on Internet pornography Monday targeting popular online portals and major search engines such as Google.
Seven government agencies will work together on the campaign to "purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors," according to an announcement on the government's official Chinese-language Web site, china.com.cn.
Pornography is banned in China, though the government's Internet police struggle to block Web sites based abroad.
The government announcement said Google and Baidu, China's two most heavily used search engines, had failed to take "efficient" measures after receiving notices from the country's Internet watchdog that they were providing links to pornographic material.
The statement also named popular Web portals Sina and Sohu, as well as a number of video sharing sites and online bulletin boards, that it said contain problematic photos, blogs and postings.
It said violators will be severely punished, but did not give details or say how long the campaign will last.
A Google spokeswoman in China, Cui Jin, defended the site's operations, saying it does not contain any pornographic content.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users with more than 250 million. The central government has blocked access to many Web sites it considers subversive or too political, including The New York Times' Web site on Dec. 19. It was unblocked a couple days later and remained open Monday.