Since Bing’s debut in May 2009, Microsoft has dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars toward an advertising campaign focused on promoting Bing as a viable alternative to Google. Arguably, this has been met with some success, as the search engine now captures roughly 14% of the market (30% if you include all Bing powered search engines i.e. Yahoo). In an attempt to identify the factors for Bing’s rate of adoption, Chitika Insights analyzed web browser distribution for the new search engine.

Breaking down Bing’s usage by browser yields some pretty surprising results. Internet Explorer (IE) commands almost three quarters of all Bing search queries, at 72%. Chrome and Firefox, the next two most popular browsers represent 9.04% and 7.94% of traffic from Bing respectively. Safari and Opera take 4th and 5th place with only 4.32% and 1.40%.

It’s no surprise that the dominant browsers in the market, highlighted in this earlier Insights study, are responsible for the majority of queries entered into Bing. However, further investigation suggests that perhaps Microsoft’s integration of Bing into its other products (Internet Explorer) and business relationships (Verizon Blackberry) has supported Bing’s recent growth.

Notice that 72% of Bing users are using Internet Explorer, but IE only makes up 52% of all internet browser use. Conversely, for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, the share of Bing usage represented by each browser is far less than its respective market share.This implies that users have the highest likelihood of using Bing if they are using Internet Explorer. Keep in mind that Bing is the default search engine on IE. This may provide reasoning for the concept that many Bing users interact with Bing primarily because it is their default, not because it is their preferred search engine.

Keep checking back for additional studies and analyses from Chitika Insights

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