Yahoo/Bing close the gap on Google
Its lead may have long seemed unassailable but long time also-rans in the search engine business, Yahoo/Bing, may finally be clawing back some market share against the sector leader – according to a new report.
Figures published today show that Yahoo/Bing have experienced a 46% increase in search advertising in the US over the first quarter, compared to just 26.6% for Google. This gave Yahoo/Bing a combined market share of 21.2%.
This growth is being attributed to innovation in the bidding for keywords by match type (broad, phrase, exact) which lead to more competition amongst marketers.
Mobile search activity was also a significant growth area, now accounting for 12.3% of total search advertising spend in the first quarter.
As is so often the case where America leads the UK tends to follow and whilst Yahoo/Bing grew a relatively modest 6% in the first quarter this side of the pond that figure is predicted to rise once the search alliance takes full effect in April.
At present the combined UK market share of Yahoo/Bing is a paltry 4%, with Google snaffling the rest.