Microsoft has responded to the news that its new search engine Bing has continued to grow by insisting that it will only succeed if it continues the pace of innovation.
Statistics from respected net data company comScore revealed that the initial burst of enthusiasm for the new product had not given way – with a second week of growth buoying Bing, which offers a different option to industry giant Google.
Bing took 12.1 per cent of US internet searches between Monday and Friday last week (June 8-12), up from 11.3 per cent in its launch week.
Not carried away
However, CEO Steve Ballmer is not getting carried away with the news, and insisted to a conference in Detroit that growth would only continue if Microsoft was tenacious and innovative in the search market.
"We have had some very good initial response," said Ballmer.
"I don't want to over-set expectations. We are going to have to be tenacious and keep up the pace of innovation over a long period of time."
Big difference
The week before Bing launched its predecessor, Microsoft's Live search, took 9.1 per cent of the US search enquiries, so the figures are significant.
In the UK the grow this expected to be much smaller, with the UK version of Bing – optimised for the market – still not out of beta and any marketing campaign delayed until it is ready.
This is in stark contrast to the US market, where Microsoft has pumped huge amounts of money into a major marketing campaign.
Via Reuters
