Has Google Handed Market Share to Bing on a Silver Platter This Week?

This is a guest post from Sagar Jani, Digital Strategist at Station X Communications.

Google's recent algorithm updates, which fully integrate and prioritize Google + into its search results, have spurred a wave of debate and criticism, and it’s quite clear that the search engine giant is losing out in the arena of public opinion. No stranger to controversy, however, Google has made other questionable moves in the past, including Google Wave or the Buzz for example. They have also been involved in suspect deals, including one where they profited from online Canadian pharmacies running illegal ads, a deal which proved to be a $500 million mistake.
 
Despite this, Google’s core business, the search engine responsible for the majority of its revenue and traffic, has remained largely secure. However, Bing has been plugging away over time, becoming the number 2 search engine, and this recent move has inadvertently helped Bing gain popularity.

The reception to this change has been all but warm: Gizmodo has labeled Bing as the better of the 2 search engines, and Dave Winer at Scripting News stated that "Google's search is getting cluttered with pointless crap", concluding that he’ll stay with Bing as long as it continues to outperform Google.

Google has indicated that this change will deliver more personalized results, but some have seen these results skewed more towards Google services than anything else (Google+, Picasa, YouTube, for instance). Take the following scenario: when you search for a restaurant, you're now presented with Google Plus results before Yelp results, where there are generally a large number of useful restaurant reviews. As you can imagine, this doesn't strike a positive chord with many users. Adding to this discontent, SearchEngineland has compiled several damaging examples of the ways in which Google's new interface promotes Plus over relevancy. 

Of course, Google has an incredibly strong global brand presence, with millions of loyal followers, and it remains to be seen what kind of effect these changes will have on the mass of searchers. With two more influential Web sites moving over to Bing's side this week, others may follow. Microsoft might be pulling its "build a competitor, then wait for the rivals to crumble" strategy as it did with Netscape, AOL,  and Sony. We will keep a close eye on the ComScore search reports over next few months, when we can fully assess the impact of Google’s recent move. In the meantime, Microsoft adCenter may see an upswing in popularity, as it already displays ads to 30% of the market.

Posted by Nicole Capelo at January 13, 2012 3:30 PM

Comments

Mark Smith

Looks like Twitter is also slamming Google about this change: http://mashable.com/2012/01/10/twitter-google-social-search/

theresa Coffey

'Google's recent algorithm updates, which fully integrate and prioritize Google + into its search results, have spurred a wave of debate and criticism, and it’s quite clear that the search engine giant is losing out in the arena of public opinion.' I couldn't agree more.

Google has clearly crossed the line, with its promotion of G+ in its search results. This unfair use of their monopoloy in search pushes good content down and it gives inferior results to searchers (a free Panda pass!). Google cheats on its own guidelines.

The last time Google crossed the line this badly, they added the infamous "back to Google" link on every AdSense ad... no opt-out, no payment like other advertisers make. Theft. The uproar pushed them back within hours.

Google Plus should succeed or fail purely on its own merits.

Do you agree with Ken Evoy (http://on.fb.me/ApBt4t) that Google is selling its search soul?