Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, is now running a TV advertising campaign on Channel 4 in the UK. The ad appears targeted at the younger demographic and features a character suffering the poorly, robotic, effects of ‘irrelevant’ information overload.

Advertising on the telly is a new approach for search engines and shows that Microsoft values traditional media to bring it new customers. To this end, Bing is also sponsoring The Simpsons, coinciding with the show’s 20th anniversary.

Here’s what the Search Engine market share looks like globally, as at Feb 2010, according to marketshare.hitslink.com:

In the UK, according to Mediaweek, Microsoft has a 4% share, the same as Yahoo!, while both are dwarfed by Google’s 86%, (Nielsen Online statistics for January).

The picture in Ireland is similar, with Google streets ahead of the other search engines (indeed, it is literally streets ahead when it comes to Google streetview, but that’s another story…).

So, is it about to change?

And the answer is yes – that’s the only definite on the internet, that it will change. But will traffic move to the Facebook ‘walled garden’ or will search engines eek out their own markets, only time will tell.

You can submit site to Bing at:   www.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspx

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