Bing off to solid start, but not that good

Microsoft’s new Bing search engine has received positive reviews in its first week on the planet, but did that early buzz translate into traffic? A report from Statcounter picked up by TechCrunch suggested that Bing’s debut was successful enough to eclipse Yahoo Search during its first week, but subsequent analysis from Search Engine Land as well as data from CNET’s network of sites suggests otherwise.

Statcounter, a Web traffic tracking company, reported that as of Thursday, June 4, Bing accounted for 16.28 percent of the U.S. search market, surpassing Yahoo’s 10.22 percent just days after going live on Monday. Worldwide, Bing’s advantage was said to be slimmer (5.62 percent to Yahoo’s 5.13 percent), but that was enough for Statcounter to proclaim “Bing overtakes Yahoo!”

However, it’s not quite that simple. Statcounter’s data is “based on aggregate data collected by Statcounter on a sample exceeding 4 billion page views per month collected from across the Statcounter network of more than 3 million Web sites. Stats are updated and made available every 4 hours, however are subject to quality assurance testing and revision for 7 days from publication,” according to the company.