Who Uses Bing? Why It Can’t Compete With Search Engine Giant Google

9.6 min readPublished On: 11 December 2020By
who uses bing

Bing and Google are both great search engines that offer different features and services. Which one is better for you depends on how often you use each service.

If you’re a regular user of the web, chances are that you use the search engine Google every single day. it’s definitely the most popular search engine option out there, with around 63,000 searches per second! So, to answer the question of who uses Google, it’s pretty much everyone, with the average user making around 3-4 searches per day. It’s safe to say that it’s the search engine giant, with more than 90% of search engine reportedly traffic being directed through it. But, did you know that there are in fact plenty of other search engine options out there? They range in mission and popularity, from the eco search engine Ecosia to the once-popular Yahoo Search. Another search engine out there is Bing, owned by Microsoft. In this article, we’ll be talking all about it. What is it? Who uses Bing? And more questions will be answered here. We’ll also take a look at why it can’t really compete with search engine giant Google.

Want to see how the two search engines compare in a few key things? Click here to skip ahead to our handy table!

Does anyone use Bing?

If you’re a devoted Google lover and user, you may be wondering, who even uses Bing? And, with the immense popularity that Google has, this is not an unfounded question. The facts are more than you might expect though! Around 12 billion searches are made on Bing each and every month. In comparison to Google’s 100 billion searches, this definitely can’t compete. But, there are still plenty of Bing users out there who use the search engine for at least some of their daily searches on the web. The misconception that no one uses Bing is exactly that!

How does a bing work? Simple. Just like Google you head to Bing and enter the search query you are looking for. Bing whisks away and starts to look for answers to serve you.

How does Bing search work? Well, just like Google that’s a closely guarded secret.

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Why does Bing exist?

So, we know that Google is the most popular search engine out there. And, it does pretty much anything that you would want a search engine to do. So, why use Bing? What’s the point of having more than one search engine when Google does a perfectly fine job? Sometimes, it just comes down to personal preference. The two sites do look and perform in a similar way, but some people do just prefer Bing. It also does perform better than Google in some instances, for example, it has a better video search and gives users more autocomplete suggestions.

When it comes to SEO, the two search engines have some differences here as well. Google uses a more rigorous and sophisticated algorithm for SEO, which means that it can be harder to get your keywords ranking. However, on the reverse side, you may actually find it harder to get your keywords ranking on Bing, because it prioritises social search, and there can be more link spam. Overall, this means that it can be hard to come up with a social strategy that works for both search engines. You may need to pick one, or expand your strategy to encompass them both.

If you use the Bing search engine, it will be useful for you to check out the bing rank checker by Sitechecker. This is a very helpful tool for those who are engaged in SEO of their website for Bing search results. The bing rank checker tool will help you see your site’s position in the search engine rankings for certain keywords. Another useful feature of this tool is the monitoring function, which will send you reports on changes in the ranking of your site in the Bing search engine.  

Bing search results

Does Bing use Google to search?

It’s a common misconception that Bing is Google repackaged. They are entirely different search engines and neither one of them relies on the other to carry out their searches. To do their searches, each one uses their own unique algorithm to come up with the results that you need. And, they are entirely different companies, with Bing being owned by Microsoft. The two search engines are competitors and won’t deliver the exact same results for searches.

Does Bing pay you to search?

Now, this is where Bing becomes quite an attractive search engine option for many people. While technically, no Bing does not pay you to search, you can earn something called Microsoft rewards for using it as your search engine. As long as you’re signed into your Microsoft account on desktop, tablet, or mobile, you can earn points which can then be exchanged for rewards. These rewards include things such as Microsoft products and subscriptions, gift cards to stores such as Tesco, and charitable donations. The basic level one members can earn up to 150 points per month. There’s no set value for these points, but some sources say that one point is equal to up to two pence. So, if you’re only collecting these rewards by searching on Bing, it can take quite some time to build up enough to make a purchase. While technically, Bing does pay you to search, it’s not a cash payment and you can only use the points you build up to buy specific things.

Why is Bing so bad when it comes to competing with Google?

Now we’ve looked at the differences between Google and Bing engine. Many people think that Bing is bad, and that Google is far superior. While it’s not as clear cut as this, there are some clear ways in which Bing just can’t compete with the search engine giant Google. Let’s take a look at a few of them here:

Google tends to be more consistent than Bing

When it comes to answering the question of who uses Bing, it’s important to remember that Bing has not always been branded in this way! Like a lot of Microsoft’s products, it’s been through a fair few name changes and rebrands in its lifetime. For example, it started out as MSN Search, and has also been named Windows Live Search and simply just Live Search before it finally settled on Bing. On the other hand, Google’s name and brand have remained pretty consistent throughout its lifetime. This creates a more recognisable product that people are comfortable using because they know what it is and where it has come from. Unfortunately, this is something that Bing definitely lacks.

More people use Google

It’s a definite fact that more people use Google than any other search engine option out there, which is something that we’ve already discussed. But, this can lead to problems for any other search engine, such as Bing, that wants to compete. As Google is such a major player, most businesses and websites tend to focus their SEO strategies for Google, with the hopes that their webpages will show up there. This means that they can neglect to optimise for other search engines like Bing. This has the knock on effect of these sites not being shown as highly in Bing results. Why do we use Google, or any search engine for that matter? Because it gives us the results that we are looking for, which can include familiar sites that we visit time and time again. So, if someone tries out Bing for a search that they are familiar with, but then can’t see their favoured site, they are unlikely to return and use it again. They may think that the search results aren’t as good, but they simply are gathered using a different algorithm on sites that aren’t usually optimised for Bing. While this isn’t really Bing’s fault, it is definitely a reason why it’s probably never going to be as popular as Google.

Google

Google has a head start and bigger data

Google was started way back in 1999, towards the beginning of the internet as we know it today. However, Microsoft only started rolling our their version of a search engine in 2005. The internet had already moved on vastly from 1999 by this time, so it’s clear that Google had a big head start and the opportunity to refine its systems well before Microsoft even started! This, and the fact that it is generally more popular, also means that Google has more data from previous searches to help tweak its algorithm. So, even if their algorithms were the exact same, Google would still have more data to play with to create more refined searches.

Google and Bing have different company focuses

For pretty much its entire existence, Google’s main focus has been on growing its search engine to become the biggest one in the world. And, it is safe to say that they have succeeded in this! On the other hand, Microsoft has always been more focused on other areas of its business such as the Office suite and Windows. So, they haven’t invested nearly as much time and resources into their search engine as Google has. Is it any wonder that it’s been left in the dust? Now, you may be asking who uses Bing?  But just because you aren’t a user yourself, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a successful product with many users all over the world. It’s just that Google is such a giant in the search engine space, that it can be hard to see how anyone, including Bing, can possibly start to compete on their level.

Google and Bing’s differences

In this handy table, we’ve put together some of the key differences between Google vs Bings usage, so you can see for yourself how they compare in a few key factors:

DifferenceGoogleBing
Daily searches3.5 billion +0.45 billion
Top search term in 2020'Coronavirus''Google'
Average Click Through Rate on ads1.91%2.83%
Percentage of worldwide search market held92.71%2.73%

Why You Should Choose One Over the Other

If you’re looking for a new search engine, there are pros and cons to each. So, which one should you use? It depends on your needs and preferences.

• Google has more than 2 billion active users worldwide (Bing Vs Google 2020)
• Google offers free web searching while Bing charges $1 per month for its paid version.
• Google uses an algorithm called PageRank to determine what results appear at the top of a search result list.
• Google has a feature called “Google Suggest” that suggests related searches as you type into the search box.
• Google has more advanced image recognition technology than Bing.
• Google has been around longer than Bing.

Who uses Bing: conclusion?

So, it’s clear to see that Google reigns supreme when it comes to the battle between the search engines. But why is Bing so terrible? The short answer is, it’s not. There are so many reasons why it’s not as popular as Google, which we’ve outlined above. But, with a market share as huge as Google, there’s currently not much hope for Bing or any other search engine to catch up. Do people use Bing? Yes, they do, but not nearly as many as Google. The fact that Bing’s top searched for term is ‘Google’ says quite a lot about which search engine consumers prefer to use. But, Bing probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s still many people’s preferred search engine, even if it can’t quite compete with Google.

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