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"Google might still be the leading search engine in the U.S. by a large margin, but over the last six months, searches powered by Microsoft Bing are increasing at an impressive rate. So impressive, in fact, that if the trend line continues, there will be a real contest between Bing and Google next year \u2014 and Bing may just come out on top.\nAccording to the latest data from Experian Hitwise, Google was responsible for 64.42% of searches in the U.S. in March, 2011. Bing-powered search \u2014 which includes both search.yahoo.com and bing.com \u2014 accounted for 30% of U.S. searches.\nThe fact that Bing has crossed the 30% mark in the U.S. is significant in and of itself. Looking back through Experian Hitwise's archives underscores the tremendous amount of growth for Bing-powered search. The rate of growth appears to be increasing.\n\nLast October, Experian Hitwise reported that Google controlled 72.15% of the U.S. search market for September, 2010. Bing powered search accounted for 23.64%. In the last six months, Bing's market share in the U.S. is up to 30%. Moreover, Bing.com, which represented just 10% of searches in September 2010, represented 14.32% of searches in March, 2011.\nGoogle still clearly leads Bing more than 2 to 1. But when you consider that that ratio was 3 to 1 last fall, the gap appears to be closing. Bing is growing by five or six percent each month, whereas Google is  losing two to three percent.\nSo what would happen if that trend  continued?\n\nWe decided to graph out the answer to that question. In this scenario, Google drops 3% of its market share each month, while Bing gains 5% each month. Of course, this assumes sustained growth and sustained losses on the parts of both search engines. In a volatile market, it is extremely unlikely that we'll see these exact numbers over the next year.\nBut if you do assume a constant trajectory, Bing will overtake Google in less than a year \u2014 January 2012, to be precise.\nWhat isn't hypothetical is that Bing has real momentum. After years of referring to Google as \"the search giant\", it looks as if there is a serious contender for that title \u2014 and we could be heading towards an era dominated by two search superpowers.\nWhat do you think of Bing's growth over the last six months? Do you still use Google for everything? Let us know in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/04/11/bing-search-growth/>