Google chief sees Bing as a formidable opponent 

Monday, September 27 2010 by John Burns
 
Search engine optimisation (SEO) providers may take more of an interest in refining client websites for Microsoft's Bing search engine, which recently gained an endorsement from its nearest competitor, Google.
 
One of the newest to the market in search engine terms, Bing has already established itself as second fiddle to the still dominant search giant Google, having overtaken Yahoo in the US in August, according to data published by Nielsen earlier this month.
 
Now, Microsoft has attracted the attention of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who has identified Bing as a formidable underdog.
 
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Mr Schmidt gave plenty of indications that Bing is being taken seriously by experts at Google. Many internet marketing consultants will no doubt take Silicon Valley's interest in Bing developments as a sign that there is good reason for targeting SEO at Microsoft's search engine.
 
Many will no doubt already be doing this. But a great many, seduced by the dominance of Google, probably have little idea about how targeting SEO at Bing may differ from focusing on Google.
 
Mr Schmidt told the WSJ: "Absolutely, our competitor is Bing. Bing is a well-run, highly competitive search engine."
 
But Mr Schmidt is just one man. A very well-informed man no doubt - although his assessment deviates markedly from the assessment by both comScore and Hitwise, data from whom indicates that search engine provider Yahoo is actually the one playing second fiddle to Google.
 
Internet marketing consultants will probably have their own opinions too.
 
Mr Schmidt did add one other gem of wisdom that is likely to have pricked the ears of business leaders marketing online concerning how users behave with Google.
 
He explained: "We studied very carefully the impact with Facebook and Facebook users use Google more, so we love Facebook for that reason."