I’ve been reading many articles about Microsoft’s $80-$100 million marketing campaign and about how Bing’s search market share continues to grow. If this trend continues even when the marketing campaign ends, this could be very good news for generic .com domain investors.
Based on a small sampling of searches I tested, it seems that Bing gives generic domain names higher rankings than Google or Yahoo. It’s the case with my websites, Burbank.com, Lowell.com, Newburyport.com, and Torah.com. It’s also the case with a number of other generic .com domain names that I checked in both search engines.
Bing’s market share is still very low, so the impact is minor. In fact, I highly, highly doubt Bing will overtake Google in the near future. However, if Bing does grow and eats into Google’s share, and/or if Microsoft buys Yahoo’s search business and the generic domain name rankings of Bing transfers to Yahoo, we could see more companies valuing generic domain names for their SERP value.
Here’s a comparison of the rankings of a small number of websites with generic domain names in Google and Bing:
Casino.com: – Google: 6 – Bing: 1 for Casino
Burbank.com: – Google: 5 – Bing: 2 for Burbank
Lowell.com: – Google: 10 – Bing: 2 for Lowell
Newburyport.com: – Google: 8 – Bing: 2 for Newburyport
Mortgage.com: – Google: 9 – Bing: 1 for Mortgage
Soccer.com: – Google: 1 – Bing: 1 for Soccer
DogSupplies.com: – Google: 3 – Bing: 1 for Dog Supplies
Airfare.com: – Google: 7 – Bing: 1 for Airfare
Fly.com: – Google: 7 – Bing: 2 for Fly
Chairs.com: – Google: NR – Bing: 3 for Chairs
Torah.com: – Google: 20 – Bing: 8 for Torah
HomeFashions.com: – Google: 7 – Bing: 2 for Home Fashions
One thing that is especially good is that most of the websites above wouldn’t be recognized by consumers as the brand leader. In the Lowell market for example, most people would probably consider the Sun newspaper to be the market leader. Likewise, in the pet marketplace, people would probably choose Pet Smart or Pet Co as the market leader.
Agree, Elliot. I quickly checked eight of our generics. In six out of eight we ranked better on MSN (two were the same). The first ranking is for Google, the second for MSN:
Whisky.com – 2 2
Daycare.com – 2 1
Bullion.com – 7 3
Traveler.com – 15 1
Kennel.com – 5 2
Cost.com – 9 5
Banana.com 3 3
Manicure.com – 4 2
interesting, took a sampling for three of my names
BanquetFacilities.com – #1 on both for “banquet facilities”
TermiteInspections.com – #1 on Bing, Lower on Google for “termite inspections”
PortraitPhotographers.com – #3 on Bing, Much Lower on Google for “portrait photographers”
For dot coms, Bing definately appears to weight domain names heavier than google.
However, for my .nets, Videographers.net is #2 on Google, but #3 on Bing
The cool thing about BING is
that Microsoft can keep many users from ever getting to Google.
Google is reliant on users going from Safari or IE
to their specific site,
but Microsoft has all the MSN Homepage users directed to BING and they can make it to where
all IE users visit BING and never make it to Google.
I think BING is for real and it’s going to only grow and take share from Google.
hold on π
Great to see another company taking a serious run at becoming a real player in the SE space and providing an alternative to the Big G. I did a quick check of a few of our city sites and most are at the least equal to our Goggle position or higher. It’s early in the game, but still nice to see an alternative emerging.
That said, I agree with what David C has said many times, that “search engine independence” is also a lofty goal and to an extent, desirable place to be.
@Shaun
Agree entirely.
I also like telling local businesses that 20% of my traffic is type-in, which can’t be bought on Google.
Test
“I also like telling local businesses that 20% of my traffic is type-in, which canβt be bought on Google.”
That’s a powerful way of phrasing your sales pitch Elliot. I like it!
Regarding Bing.com, I really believe the fact that they went with a four character domain gave them a leg up over Yahoo and Google. Also, if you pay attention as you type the word Bing in notice just how well-placed the letters are…..it’s VERY, VERY easy to type in. I think they have a winner on their hands.
Bing me up some damn good parking profits! Show me the money and I’ll mutiny Google faster than Fletcher Christian could set Capt. Bligh afloat in the South Pacific.
@Johnny
That selling point is a David Castello suggestion π
Interesting discovery! π I am not a big fan of Microsoft but I start to like Bing π
Don’t want to be a party spoiler but this is my view.
Having watched this too engines, we should not rejoice at where generics land. Maybe Generics land lower in google because the other sites that rank above it are deamed to be more relevant. Look if one wanted to go to food.com, they could have done it themself but when people type “food” in a search engine, they are usually asking for more. They are in essence saying “show me the best food joint” online. If Bing keeps bringing up searches that bear no weight in comparism to Google, It will never be able to rival google. People will always stick with the engine that gives them the best results just like you will listen to someone longer if he is saying what you want to hear.
@Frankie
You always bring the good food to a party, so you’re not spoiling it.
IMO, a lot of people use search engines because it’s their default home page, and they don’t even know the difference between entering Food into their browser and into their search engine.
You are right that if Bing ranks generics higher, and they have less valuable information than brands, consumers will have a bad user experience and switch to Google.
I think having the generic name is just half the battle. Having good, relevant content is the other half – which is what I am trying to do with mine π
ie: July 4th fireworks article on Burbank.com, which I know people are looking to find:
http://www.burbank.com/news/2009/july-4-fireworks.php
We need competition because as well all know Google has basically become a monopoly and that is not good. Rooting for Bing big time to keeping cutting into the market share.
Thanks, Jim