September 7, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Bing Shopping, the product comparison tool that makes up part of Microsoft’s new search engine reportedly showed a 169% increase in June, though I think it would be wise to take these figures with a pinch of salt. Forgive me for being a little bit cynical about these claims but I think there’s definitely reason to be sceptical about the importance of any supposed increase in Bing usage… For a couple of reasons.
Firstly, you have to consider the kind of money that Microsoft is pouring into Bing at the minute. The world’s biggest software company are notorious for very aggressive marketing, that kind of a push is going to lead to a spike in anyone’s numbers.
Secondly, the numbers of Bing users are still so low in comparison to the number of overall Internet users that an increase of 169% on one individual part of the system, whilst impressive, is not exactly worth what it might appear at first glance.
And finally, I don’t want to say that I don’t trust statistics from Microsoft but… Well, actually, no I don’t trust statistics from Microsoft. The final straw for me was when it was reported that Bing was clicking on its own ads, thereby polluting advertisers’ stats. It’s even possible that these Bing figures are the result of something similar.
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