CainIV - 5:55 am on Aug 20, 2009 (gmt 0)

EIGHTY MILLION DOLLARS got them .9 more market share. That is what is called a "fact". Thus far, this is a fail of epic proportions. they could do well in the future, but as of today they spent a fortune and 1) have lost traffic since their peak, and 2) grown by less than 1% of market share after an 80 million dollar ad buy.

No one is debating whether the move is 'cost effective' or not. Nor is anyone debating their effective use of marketing $$.

The question here really is - does Bing provide as good, or on par results for the average user as Google does. It does seem as though this is up for debate, depending on which camp you access, but some items which are glaring here are the fact that Bing does appear to be providing better results in some areas, does appear to have their marketing game in order (and a large budget behind it), and will be partnering with Yahoo.

If I were a betting man, (which I am), I would look at those three criteria as pretty valid myself.

Winning the belt is easy. Keeping it is the tough part.

Only time will tell.