Bing growing in UK, Google still leads

(AFP PHOTO/LOIC VENANCE)

Microsoft's Bing search engine grew in popularity throughout July in the UK but Google still dominates the search engine market, according to research by market analyst Experian Hitwise.

Research from Experian Hitwise released August 8 shows that from June to July the share of searches conducted by Microsoft search engines - most notably Bing - grew by 0.96 percent, accounting for 3.84 percent of all searches conducted in the UK in July. The popularity of Microsoft search engines was also seen to have experienced a year-on-year increase of 0.67 percent. 

This growth means that Microsoft has now, once again, overtaken Yahoo as the UK's second most popular search engine after slipping to third - behind Yahoo! - in June. 

In comparison to Microsoft's growth in popularity, Google's monthly share of searches fell by 0.98 percent in July and by 0.56 percent compared to the same period last year.

Despite Microsoft's growth and Google's declining popularity Bing still has a long way to go before overtaking Google, which retained 91.04 percent of all searches in the UK in July.

The battle between Google and Bing for consumers is also being closely fought in the United States - where in a recent consumer satisfaction survey by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Google just scored higher than its rival - 83/100 against Bing's 82/100 - though both scores were rated "excellent."

Most popular search engine by share of UK searches	Share of searches July 2011	Share of searches June 2011	Monthly change	Share of searches July 2010	Yearly change
Google Sites	91.04%	92.02%	-0.98%	91.60%	-0.56%
Microsoft Sites	3.84%	2.88%	0.96%	3.17%	0.67%
Yahoo! Sites	3.00%	2.96 %	0.03%	3.04%	-0.04%
Ask Sites	1.44%	1.43%	0.02%	1.50%	-0.06%
Other	0.68%	0.71%	-0.02	0.69%	0.01%