Research: Bing-Powered Engines Grew 6.5% in January

Searches on Bing-powered engines grew 6.5% in the U.S. from December to January, climbing from 25.77% of total search volume to 27.44%. Google lost 2.5%, dropping from 69.67% to 67.95% of searches. This according to the latest Experian Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report, which looks at U.S. traffic.

Bing.com saw the greatest increase in searches in the month, growing 21% over December, though overall volume was still relatively low at 12.81%. Bing-powered Yahoo actually saw a 4% dip in search volume, to 14.62% between December and January.

Search success rate, or how often a search resulted in a visit to a web site, was highest on Bing-powered sites, the report showed. For both Yahoo and Bing.com, more than 81 percent of searches resulted in a visit to a website. Google only saw a success rate of 65 percent, but this could reflect Google’s highlighting of information on its own site, so searchers don’t find it necessary to click through to a web site.

The report also measured paid search traffic, and found that Amazon again captured the majority of clicks, garnering 11.25% of all paid clicks in January. Amazon had also come out on top in December. Among the top 5 retail sites measured by Experian Hitwise, Lowe’s showed the highest month-over-month growth in paid clicks, at 51%. Sam’s Club, which is among the top 20 retail sites, experienced the highest month-over-month increase, at 62 percent growth.

The Experian Hitwise research also showed 5% growth in longer search queries — those from five to eight words — from December to January. Shorter search queries decreased 1 percent. Two-word searches continued to be the most popular, comprising 23.6% of all search queries.