Will Windows 10 Help Bing Devour Google?

Windows 10 officially launched last week, and Microsoft is reporting unprecedented demand for the new operating system. That is not the only big announcement they made, however. Microsoft says that their search engine, Bing, is also going to grow tremendously—to the tune of 15 percent.

Not convinced? Here’s their reasoning, and what it will mean for your online presence.

Total Bing Integration

One of the most important predictors of which search engine a person will use is which one is built into their device. It’s possible to change from the default, but most people don’t. That means if your phone browser, desktop/laptop browser, or OS use Bing by default, you’re probably going to use Bing.

(This is why contracts with Safari and Firefox were such a big deal.)

Of course, Bing was already built into Windows, but not in a direct way. In the previous Windows version, to search the web you would normally launch an internet browser (Internet Explorer by default), and then type your search into its task bar. Then you would get the Bing results.

Windows 10 doesn’t mess around with a middle man. Instead, it offers a task bar at all times. The task bar is actually Cortana, Microsoft’s better-than-Siri AI assistant, and is conveniently labeled, “Ask me anything.” You can type in the task bar, or just say your question out loud; results are served by Bing.

I think it’s a safe bet to say that this shortcut is a lot less effort than opening a non-Microsoft product to search the web. You can change Cortana’s default search engine but, as mentioned above, this is uncommon. Microsoft has good reason to be optimistic.

Impact on Internet Marketing

This change will not be a Google killer. Microsoft is estimating a 10 to 15 perfect gain in search volume. If accurate, that means Bing’s share of total global search queries could grow from its current 10 percent share to 11.5 percent. That barely puts a ding in Google’s 70 percent market dominance.

That does not mean the change is insignificant, however. I always urge businesses to consider ads on Bing in addition to Google, because Bing ads are cheaper and less competitive. Those ads will soon be seen by more users, at a time when rates for Google AdWords ads are rising.

I would also expect longer-term gains for Bing, not because they offer a better search product but because they’re changing how we view search. Consumers will get used to searching from the bottom of (for example) Microsoft Word. They’ll start to think of search more as a built-in function of any device and less as a brand decision. Because Windows dominates the OS market, many will switch to Bing without even realizing it.

All of which is to say, you may want to brush up on your Bing SEO.

But don’t feel you need to do it alone. If you want help with your SEO and internet marketing, EverSpark is here for you. Contact us and get your free consultation today.