A new focus group study shows that some users prefer Bing, Microsoft's new search engine – but that most, in the long run, would stay with Google.
(Microsoft/KRT/Newscom)Photos (1 of 1)
The biggest problem facing Bing? Loyalty to Google.
By Matthew Shaer | 06.26.09
We’ve written a lot about Bing in recent months, because let’s face it – any legitimate challenge to Google is worth watching very closely. But a new focus group study released yesterday by Catalyst Group shows exactly how steep the climb will be for Microsoft’s new search tool.
The focus group was comprised of 12 Internet users, all of whom named Google as their search engine of choice. (None of the users had ever tried Bing.) The group was given two tasks: a search for local hotels, and a shopping search for a new digital camera. Each user was asked to try the search on both Google and on Bing. The Catalyst Group then employed eye tracking technology and a general survey to monitor how the group responded to each engine.
Score one for Bing
Interestingly, most of the users preferred the visual design and feel of Bing. One test subject said Bing was “warmer and more inviting.” Another opined that “Bing’s search refining features were more helpful than Google’s.” So far, so good – Microsoft has obviously put a lot of thought into the layout of their newest engine, from the glossy opening photos to the structure of the results page.
One more piece of good news for Bing: When users embarked on their search for a new digital camera, they spent 150 percent more time viewing the ad space at the top of the page. A plus, obviously, for Microsoft’s sales teams.
But we’ll stay with Google
In the end, 8 out of the 12 users said they planned on sticking with Google, despite a positive experience with Bing. Some users cited the fact that the engines were producing essentially identical results. Others pointed out that since they already used a lot of Google applications, such as Google Docs, that it wouldn’t make sense to switch to Bing. The biggest sticking point, though, was loyalty: users were familiar with how Google worked, and saw no reason to ditch their favorite search engine.
“Bing generates interest,” one user wrote, “but it’s hard to take me away from Google because I’m so comfortable with it.”
The numbers game
In the end, of course, the victor in the search war between Google and Bing will be the one who ends up with the most toys traffic. And in that race, Bing has gained some serious momentum.
Earlier this month, the tracking firm comScore estimated that Bing’s average daily penetration among US searchers had reached 16.7 percent during the week of June 8, a 3 percent increase from the week prior to the engine’s introduction.
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2. Gavin Lew | 06.26.09
Interesting…These results are similar to a to another study:
An eye tracking study comparing Bing to Google with 21 participants released on June 6th, 2009 by User Centric, Inc. revealed that sponsored links on the right attracted more attention on Bing (~42% of participants per search) than they did on Google (~25% of participants per search). The full research report detailing all the findings is available at http://www.usercentric.com/news/2009/06/08/eye-tracking-bing-vs-google-first-look
3. Jereme Guenther | 06.26.09
I have to agree with Shawn. I like Bing, I think it has a lot of great features, however I don’t believe it is superior to Google; if anything the quality is the same. With that said I have a lot invested in Google’s other products such as gmail and docs. Microsoft’s live site seems to be a half hearted attempt to counter google’s applications, but so far the only cool thing they have is skydrive which is barely workable on its own.
I follow both companies closely cheering when either comes out with something good. I think that Microsoft focuses more on the corporate world which is why the common user doesn’t get as much from them.
4. Jim | 06.27.09
Bing is just Google in formal attire. Google comes with a box of tools. Bing just looks pretty.
5. Stjepan | 06.28.09
ESTEEMED FRIENDS
Allow me to greet You and ask you for your health, if any family and love. If they are OK, then anything might be possible like luck, profit, success and many things as well,
I follow both companies closely cheering when either comes out with something good. I think that Microsoft focuses more on the corporate world which is why the common user does not get as much from.All rivers, brooks, little rivers and lakes flow toward the sea, bringing waters and nutrition to the sea plants and animals! ! GOOGLE is the OCEAN!
Sometimes, poor advertising, used to ignite but only one time
6. RyanSt530 | 06.28.09
People tend to follow namebrands. Its that simple. Same reason people will always buy Toyota no matter how hard Ford or GM try to lure us in. Doesn’t matter high Ford tries to prove to people their quality is comparable or better than Toyotas, those people will always buy Toyotas.
People want new companies or brand names all together. I believe thats the key to success. If Bing had come out under an all new brand name, not associated at all with Microsoft, it probably would have been worthy Google competition.
7. jeffreyz | 06.29.09
try this - next time you are having trouble finding something on google, try it using bing. as a software developer i tend to do a lot of searching for info on esoteric error messages. i tend to get better results with bing. that said, google is still my home page, mostly because i use the rss widgets and google.com/ig
perhaps msft should put instructions on how to config a home page similar to google’s on the bing page instead of info about holland windmills 
8. Binglove | 06.29.09
12 people is a study now? WTF is wrong with people’s common sense! This is such a stupid study and all you morons are commenting on this appalling ‘12 people study’ The other day, I did a ’study’ with 14 about the world’s best pancakes and my grandma won the title. This is absurd…journalism at its worst!
9. David | 06.29.09
@RyanSt530 Wow, I actually never saw it that way before. It makes perfect sense because the public perception that internet users generate when talking about microsoft always leave negative POV. I think among those google users I dare say that they are still prejudicing the fact that Microsoft is behind Bing.
10. mike | 06.29.09
The biggest issue is that Google is free, and clean with no FORCED tie-ins to other Google services (though it is an option.) Bing, being a Microsoft product, will very likely end up a mess of ads, forced-tie-ins, and upgrade fees, the way Microsoft trashed the once-market-leader Hotmail. As good as Bing could ever get, there will always be the looming threat that Microsoft will start looking for ways to “push” users into some sort of paid upgrade for what is currently free.
11. typoink | 06.29.09
Wow. That Bing potentially got 4 out of 12 of the study seems fairly positive to me. Obviously MS can’t “win” in one go — google is incredibly entrenched and it’ll be a long fight for marketshare.
I’ve switched to Bing, not entirely because I like it better but because I figured I’d test it out for a while before passing judgment. I’m sticking with it. The results aren’t that different, but I like the formatting on Bing and I like its image search better. I use other Google apps, but there’s no reason a person can’t use Google’s webapps and MS’s search.
12. Agito | 06.29.09
off course loyalty to google makes it hard to use bing, just as loyalty to xp forbids us to switch to vista (i wont say OS X cauze it treats power users as trash), or just as MS Visual Studio stops me from using any other IDE of C/C++ or C#
13. Online TV | 06.29.09
Very interesting report, it’s quite fascinating because Microsoft has relied on a very similar concept themselves.
Microsoft Office has a high usage rate as an office suite, and they make a lot of money not through direct consumer sales but through business licenses. They haven’t take a hard stance on piracy of their software suite, because they want people to get used to it - and for it to become a ‘default’ tool. Then when people go off to work, the businesses that hire such individuals would have to buy a license to these products since they can maintain efficiency out of the workers as they don’t have to train them to use the program, etc. The business licenses are obviously more expensive and are bought on bulk, rather than as single licenses (which a user would generally obtain).
In the same way, Google relies on offering free services to customers in the hopes that consumers will continue to use the search engine. It creates loyalty, and by adding in intertwined services to the service - it makes the retention and loyalty to the search higher. People will feel compelled to continue using Google solely from the fact that exporting your data out of GMail or Docs is a hassle and it’s easier to stay with the service than to migrate all your data elsewhere, especially considering the downsides or cons to leaving are very minimal at this point (if they were to start charging a fee that may change the case, but right now it’s still free and that’s very much a part of Google’s marketing strategy).
14. Bob | 06.29.09
“People tend to follow namebrands. Its that simple. Same reason people will always buy Toyota no matter how hard Ford or GM try to lure us in. Doesn’t matter high Ford tries to prove to people their quality is comparable or better than Toyotas, those people will always buy Toyotas.”
According to Consumer Reports, Ford isn’t anywhere close to Toyota. So I don’t quite think your example works.
15. Murali Narayanan | 06.29.09
Here is a simple test that you can try…
Search water in both google-shopping and bing-shopping.
Google-Shopping returned audio CDs in the result.
Bing-shopping returned automobile water gaskets.
Now decide which one you would prefer (unless you a automobile dealer).
Bottom-line: Microsoft still in infancy.
16. Judd | 06.29.09
@Binglove:
For those of you who don’t understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, allow me to summarize:
Quantitative research looks for statistically significant trends. It’s numeric in nature and relies on large sample groups.
Qualitative research seeks insight from smaller, one-on-one interaction. These sessions take much longer and seek to uncover user impressions. They do not claim to be statistically reliable.
Think of quantitative as “what” and qualitative as “why.”
Or, to continue your analogy, a study of 14 pancake enthusiasts might find that your grandmother’s pancakes are larger, fluffier, and absorb syrup better than those at Ihop, but the Ihop experience is superior because the Ihop manager’s grandson isn’t at the next table shooting his mouth off. This would be opinion, not fact, but would still be enlightening.
17. Kinglink | 06.29.09
Doing one search on Bing (I know not a lot) I find these qualities about it. It’s a good search engine.
Done.
It doesn’t do anything radically better than Google, It’s Microsoft owned, and Google gives me an answer in the first page. But let’s get down to it. Why do I need Bing? How does it enhance my life? The answer is it doesn’t.
Now I had a “positive” experience from Bing, but my point is, just because it worked well and didn’t give me crap answers doesn’t mean it’s “better” than Google, and if I don’t see it’s “better” than Google, why would I change?
In the end it’s not about loyalty or tie-ins, it’s about the fact that if it doesn’t bring anything new to the table except for a different name, why would I want to change over to it?
18. xie | 06.29.09
Why the hell would I want to search for just the word “water” and expect to receive audio CDs in return? I would expect to receive water related products.
19. Keith | 06.29.09
Bing has been my default browser for the last two weeks and is the biggest train wreck ever. I have switched to google after finding that every search yielded no positive results. I don’t know how people can be having positive experiences with Bing when I have had absolutly none after 200 or so searches.
21. Aleia Kay | 06.29.09
It seems most people use google for searches, but i’ve used yahoo for searching for years and will continue to use yahoo, the search results are so much better and with a wider variety. Also with yahoo you can set your preferences for searches for more or less results. For me yahoo wins hands down!
22. Anton | 06.29.09
I’ve used bing, it’s good search engine but there’s a lot to be said for being ‘first’ & ‘innovative’.
I have to agree with RyanSt530, Microsoft’s history of aggressive litigious behaviour has left its brand with a serious image problem. Couple that with it’s inglorious habit of passing off ‘emulation’ as ‘innovation’ then it’s not difficult to see why true innovation and choice will always attract consumers. (I only use Microsoft products at work, at home I Google, Firefox, Mac, ipod, Wii-PS3, Linux)
23. jeffgtr | 06.29.09
The problem with bing is Microsoft and the missing element of trust. I want my search results unbiased. I tried bing and didn’t find the results as thorough as Google, plus I like Googles uncluttered interface. I don’t search to be entertained, I search to find stuff.
I agree with the previous commenter that bing will soon be littered with ads for other microsoft products and other companies.
The bottom line is Microsoft lost my trust a long time ago. All things being equal I’ll choose a Microsoft competitor every time.
24. Gilbert_Sundevil | 06.29.09
I’m giving bing a shot in part because I think google is a little high on itself. I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems the company and its users are a bit sanctimonious. (I get an even stronger snooty vibe from apple users which has caused me to completely boycott every product of theirs - but that’s a long post for another blog).
Google dominates the search market. A little healthy competition is good for all of us. By the way, the mapping feature on bing is hands down the best. The ‘bird’s eye’ tool is awesome.
26. jen | 06.29.09
I’m sure I’ll get around to trying Bing at some point, but for now Google is like my favorite pair of jeans: comfortable and fit just right.
27. Alan | 06.29.09
Surveying 12 people is not representative of the larger population. Any claim supported by this “evidence” is unfounded.
28. Patrick | 06.29.09
You don’t think Microsoft has been in the position before?!?
bwuahahahahahahaha. Think back when Palm Pilot was king and everyone loved Palm. Think back when Netscape was king and everyone loved their browser.
It’ll take years. but they’ll get there 
go microsoft.
29. alex | 06.29.09
Netscape isn’t a bad example of something Microsoft efficiently killed (although Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari are threatening to bring down the house on IE these days). I’m not even sure what replaced the palm pilot, and that market is definitely not dominated by MS these days.
30. Sandy | 06.29.09
I never even think of using Bing when I search. I also don’t use IE.
BTW, I think Bing is an awful name. My age is showing because when I see it I think it’s about Bing Crosby.
31. Craig | 06.29.09
There are very silly comments here. Some think that Bing is a browser. Many are saying that they trust Google to remain free and expect Microsoft to just up and start charging for the service, which is ridiculous. It’s also being said that Google doesn’t have forced tie-ins.. Microsoft is actually way more flexible than Google when it comes to product tie-ins. While Google is pushing ads for Chrome all over my GMail, Windows Live is allowing you to link to content on other sites like Facebook.
The article is exactly right, Google has blinded people with Microsoft hate and impressed their brand so firmly that people will not switch for an equal (in many ways better) search engine
32. Murali | 06.29.09
@xie:
I believe …. I believe… Microsoft is marketing ‘Bing’ as a decision engine not just a search engine. In that case, an average user shopping the keyword water should expect to see what an average user would be buying. Definitely not
“1987-2005 Buick Century Water Pump GMB 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 …”, but again not ‘Audio CD’ either. I would expect to see something related to water mug, water bottle, etc that an average users like to buy.
@all Others:
When evaluating a search engine, the results for a simple keyword (water) that is not specific (water mug) yields how best the decision engine is designed.
In this case, Bing thinks we all are auto mechanics.
Anyway, Microsoft marketing will WIN big bucks for them. Bing will be the default search engine on Windows. All windows users will use it without thinking generating revenue to Microsoft. A privacy policy with just month and year (http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/bing.mspx) but not date (http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html) with archives. I cannot paint the world, I can only paint my house. So, the bottom line is … Marketing WINs when people are stupid.
33. Johannes Rexx | 06.30.09
Bing could be 10x better than Google, but I don’t trust Microsoft to abuse Bing and filter out Linux or Macintosh hits. The old Live site would routinely deliver negative hits on Linux and I will not trust Bing to do anything differently.
Bottom line - trust. And I don’t trust Microsoft. And to be clear, if Google ever strayed from it’s “do no evil” policy I will drop them like a hot potato, but I will still not go to Bing.
34. John H | 06.30.09
Microsoft lost my trust years ago. Am upset that I will have to buy Windows 7 just to make my new Vista computer work faster than my old Win98 computer. Google works for me and if I need a different search perspective, I still find Yahoo to be very useful at times.
35. philko | 06.30.09
So the studies show that users spend twice as much time looking at the ads on Bing than on Google? That’s reason enough for me to stick with Google - I don’t need any additional time-wasting distractions when I’m searching for facts, advice or news.
36. Colin | 06.30.09
Microsoft is always giving us headaches. Trying to make a buck out of everything. I spend hundreds every year repairing MS stuff. Google provides me free stuff, and as yet hasn’t harmed me. Of course as soon as they invent a Google version of Vista, all bets are off.
37. James | 06.30.09
THE GOOGKE/VIACOM SAVES YOUR DAY-TO-DAY ACTIVITIES AND SELLS DATA TO CORPORATES AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. PEOPLE PREFER BING!
38. Stjepan | 07.01.09
Dear friends, allow me to greet you, but my choice is Google. Everybody I’ve talked to tipuju on Google and I know that now some of my friends asked, “What is a Bing”?
I think that Microsoft has respectable power, but corporations and big rivers like Amazon and Google has a water ocean, and provides free salt.
All you have reason, but when Google started to charge all the services, who could be on the internet, except the few rich. Who of you is willing to with cheap internet and pay the additional services, and just not talk about information. Anyone who has information that the government in the world, and the labor force is always easy to find, thank you and regards
39. Max | 07.02.09
I have been using Bing and Google for same search related work for last 3 weeks and most of the time Bing has shown better results. First time in my life I will prefer using Bing over Google. Bing > Google
40. John Pape | 07.03.09
I use Google. It is my default home page. I like Google and all of the stuff that goes with it. I understand the need in a free society for competition. And I understand that Microsoft wants to rule the world. And I admire Microsoft in updating there approach to search. But for right now I will remain with a product that I know will provide me with the information I want when I want it. Google
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1. Shawn | 06.26.09
I am a Google user. I have tried Bing, it is nice, but I will remain a Google user. One thing, Google is constantly making free applications that make my life simplier. I believe Microsoft, would be charging for these applications. Google trusts that their advertising will pay for them. Microsoft has a long ways to go before they even catch with Google.