The latest comScore Press Release shows that between them, Bing and Yahoo! now have a 30% share of the US search market. The two search engines are set to merge later in 2011, which would create a serious competitor to Google.
Whilst Google is still far in the lead, with over 65% of all searches, the percentage of queries made using its system has dropped by 0.3% in April compared to March. Bing and Yahoo! each rose by 0.2% during this time.
In the UK, the amount of market share that Google has is believed to be 90%+, though Bing is rising in popularity on this side of the Atlantic too, so it certainy shouldn't be ignored by search engine marketers.
Our Pay Per Click team has found, across many businesses and markets, that Bing and Yahoo! traffic may be a lot lower in quantity, but it redeems itself in quality. In sectors as diverse as software, insurance, training and clothing, conversions were slightly more expensive when sent over from AdWords than they were from traffic brought in by the adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing systems.
If you are an AdWords advertiser then we recommend testing out adverts in adCenter. Now is a good time to get started - before the rush.