Today (29 July 2009) Microsoft and Yahoo! have partnered to challenge Google’s Hold on the search market. Bing is going to be providing Yahoo!’s search results.

This is big news for the Search world, especially because there has been a gradual increase in use of Bing since it launched and this new partnership will give it even more visibility.

Bing Related & Recent Searches and hover popups

Bing has got off to a really good start and is better than people expected it would be.

For example there is a related searches section on the left of the results so you don’t have to scroll down to the bottom like on Google. Also when you hover over a result, you get a popup box with a preview of the text and links on the page, without having to click-through. Another nice feature is the ability to see your recent searches clearly shown on the left hand side.

On Google you have to adjust settings in your Searchbox or Toolbar to see your recent searches.

But here is the real reason why Google should be watching its back. Microsoft’s research showed that 66% of consumers are more focused on using the Internet to get things done, rather than to just find things. Microsoft is calling it a decision engine because it is designed to help users make a decision.

In particluar it has focused on FOUR different types of search and no doubt will expand this in future. These include searches relating to TRAVEL, HEALTH, SHOPPING, and LOCAL results. Rather than expanding on it in this post just go and take Microsoft’s product tour of Bing at http://www.discoverbing.com/

Discover Bing Tour

Google currently has 65% of the search market and more like 90% in Europe. However Most people don’t have a switching cost when it comes to using search engines. Remember when we all switched from Infoseek and Altavista to Google? Almost overnight!

In the US, the combined share of Bing and Yahoo is now above 20% (1 Aug 09) according to Statscounter with Bing 9.39%, Yahoo 11.34, and that is a big deal if your market is all online.

Other sources show an even higher search share with May ‘09 figures from Nielsen showing Google with 63.2%, Yahoo: 17.2% and Microsoft: 9.4% – source – SearchEngineLand.com

If there was a sudden perception that Bing is better than Google, this could have a huge impact on some websites traffic.

So what is your opinion? Will Bing displace Google any time soon?