When Microsoft announced Bing AI, it’s intention was clear – Get a win over Google. Bing was always running behind Google Search, but the advent of AI in search applications kind of gave everyone a clean slate. Sure, the resources that companies like Microsoft and Google are immense compared to the other players in the market, Microsoft acted first with the launch of their Bing AI model. To incentivise it further, they even gave users the chance to experience the much-in-demand GPT-4 for free. All of this, paired with the initial blunders of Google Bard, made Microsoft the de-facto kings of the AI ecosystem. However, Google ironed out the wrinkles and came out with a slew of updates to their AI model and today, the two companies are at loggerheads. But who is in the lead?
If the recent search volume results are anything to go by, despite initial success, Bing AI found its share in the search engine market drop by 0.5%. Last year, Bing accounted for 7.4% share in the search engine market, while Google reported 86.7%. This year however, Bing AI has dropped to 6.9%, while Google rose to a solid 88%.
Now, the loss is not that drastic, but it is a clear indication to Microsoft, that despite introducing a full fledged GPT-4 powered chatbot, it is still losing out to Google. But what about the browsers?
Google Chrome has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism lately for it’s rather RAM hogging nature, while Microsoft’s Edge browser, which is also based on Google’s open source Chromium platform, has been praised for its focus on optimisation and performance. This has also reflected in this year’s reports, as Edge has managed to rise up to 5.5% share in the browser market. It is nowhere close to Google Chrome, but Microsoft can rest on the fact that they are doing something right with their new browser and they can continue working in the same development direction.
