signor_john - 2:28 pm on Jun 18, 2009 (gmt 0)

A $80 to $100 million ad campaign will encourage trial, but will that trial lead to a change in searching habits? That's the question that can't be answered at this time.

Interesting tidbit: eWeek cites a Nielsen survey report that showed a 14.6 percent year-over-year loss of search traffic for Microsoft in May, before Bing's launch. For the same period, Google had 28.2 percent growth and Yahoo had 22.3 percent growth. So it's possible that Microsoft's massive ad campaign and PR blitz for Bing have simply helped to stop the bleeding and stabilize its injured patient. But again, it's too early to tell.

Personal side note: I'm still getting more referrals from Yahoo than from Bing (though my site ranks fine in both), and Google is way, way ahead of either in organic search referrals to my site. For what it's worth, my site reaches an international audience (only 40-45 percent of visitors are from the U.S.), so my referral numbers are likely to be influenced less by Microsoft's ad campaign than numbers for a U.S.-centric site would be. Does anyone here know how aggressively Microsoft (or isn't) is promoting Bing internationally?