Every time I saw the latest ad for Microsoft’s (News - Alert) InternetExplorer 9, I always asked, “What is that song?” So I ‘Googled’ it and found out that the song is called “Too Close” by Alex Clare. Great commercial, but shouldn’t I have ‘Binged’ it instead?

Maybe I didn’t Bing it, but Microsoft claims that the Yahoo Bing Network accounts for “30 percent search share in the U.S.” That means about 151 million searchers, according to the Yahoo Bing Network site, who spend 124 percent more than the average consumer and five percent more than Google (News - Alert) searchers. Microsoft is also claiming that their system for ad relevancy is better than Google’s.


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Additionally, since the Yahoo Bing Network is a partnership that includes Google’s biggest rival for online retail, Amazon. In fact, Bing will be the default search engine for the latest Kindle Fire tablets in HD, according to ZDNet. So it seems that Google has even more work to do, if it desires to be the top ranking online mall.

A recent study conducted by the ad network, Chikita, reveals that the most non-Google searchers are performed through Internet Explorer. Although Google dominated search traffic last year by claiming 74.4 percent of searches in the U.S. and Canada; Yahoo came in second with 12.3 percent, followed by Bing with 9.74 percent.

Market watchers are curious about the relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft. Microsoft maintains that the name change from the “Search Alliance” to the “Yahoo Bing Network” is simply a change of name, and the only rebranding is seen with AdCenter, which is now “Bing Ads”.

Last year, Yahoo execs told the press that their partnership with Microsoft with AdCenter was not generating the revenue they hoped for. However, the execs claimed that the problems seemed to be resolved by 2011’s third quarter, and a contract with Microsoft was extended to 2013. Perhaps Yahoo’s newly appointed CEO, Marissa Meyer, was responsible for Yahoo receiving top billing for the new name.

But what has Yahoo brought to the table to earn top billing? My guess is Yahoo’s Axis browser, which received rave reviews from users who appreciated an efficient search functionality that doesn’t require the “back” button. Perhaps Yahoo and Microsoft are on to the next greatest thing, but it will still take more than a catchy song to convert the majority back over to Internet Explorer. 

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