San Francisco: Google chief executive Eric
Schmidt has said that Microsoft`s Bing search engine was the
company`s main threat, not Facebook or Apple.
"While it`s true web search is not the only game in town,
searching information is what it is all about," Schmidt said
in Wall Street Journal interview video posted online
on Friday.
He described Apple as a well-respected competitor and
Facebook as a "company of consequence doing an excellent job
in social networking," but said that Microsoft`s
latest-generation search engine was Google`s main competition.
"We consider neither to be a competitive threat," Schmidt
said, referring to Facebook and Apple. "Absolutely, our
competitor is Bing. Bing is a well-run, highly competitive
search engine."
Microsoft`s Bing and other Internet search services
overtook Yahoo! for the first time to become the number two
search engine in the United States in August, according to The
Nielsen Co.
Microsoft`s Bing, MSN and Windows Live had a 13.9 per
cent share of US search volume in August, up 0.25 per cent
from July, while Yahoo! had a 13.1 per cent share of US
Internet searches, down from 14.6 per cent in July, Nielsen
said.
Google continued to dominate the lucrative search and
advertising market with a 65.1 per cent of all Internet
searches in August, Nielsen said.
Year-over-year, Microsoft sites have increased their
search share from 10.7 per cent in August 2009 to 13.9 per
cent in August 2010 while Yahoo! has fallen from 16.0 per cent
a year ago to its current 13.1 per cent, Nielsen said.
Google held steady at 65 per cent.
Bureau Report
