Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer commented on the challenges that its Bing search engine product faces in the search engine market and commented about the strong competition that it has from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in a meeting with analysts last week.
Ballmer acknowledged that Bing lags behind Google in search engine market share but said that the company is making progress. “I was flattered to see that our visual differentiation has been a source of concern to Google,” Ballmer told the analysts, referring to Bing’s homepage, “to see them emulating us in some ways. I guess that’s a form of flattery.” He added, “We’re not confused. We’ve got a lot of work to do here. We’re not confused that investors see the big price tag to get into this business and say, ‘What’s the progress going to look like on that?’”
Bing has seen a steady increase in market share since its summer 2009 launch, to 9.8% in the United States, according to data from HitWise. However, Bing remains a distance second to Google which has a search market share of 71.6% in the United States. Microsoft also saw revenues in online services increase to $565 million during the second quarter, but saw a quarterly loss of $696 million.
He said that Microsoft has chosen to devote resources to “nontraditional areas” of search such as commercial queries and event-driven tasks, such as buying airline tickets. “As we look at how people are using the Web itself and how the Web is changing, we think we can expand that which people do with these engines,” said Bing Director Stefan Weitz to eWEEK in March. “The more exciting place, and the place we’re looking at more often, is how we expand the art of the possible in search.”
Shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded down 0.85% on Friday ending the week at $25.81.
