signor_john - 8:22 pm on Jun 18, 2009 (gmt 0)

Philosopher, I suspect that you're defining the "public perception of Google" more narrowly than an objective observer might do. Most Web users don't hang out on tech forums and don't have axes to grind for or against Google. They just "Google" things with Google Web Search, scan headlines in Google News, use Google Maps, send and receive e-mail with gmail, and see "Ads by Google" every day. Maybe they have AdSense on their personal blogs or host those blogs at Google's blogspot.com. For better or worse, Google is part of their Internet lives, and they have no compelling reason to switch their brand loyalty to Microsoft.

Will promoting Bing on new Windows computers help Microsoft? Maybe. But the "Windows advantage" hasn't done all that much for MSN over the past 14 years. For that matter, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has lost considerable market share to Firefox, despite the fact that IE is installed by default of Windows computers.

I have no bias for or against Bing, and I'm happy to accept traffic from Bing. I just don't think Bing is going to have the impact on the search business that some of you are hoping it will, because it it's no iPod or iPhone, and without a game-changing product, unseating an entrenched leader takes more than a slick home page and an ad campaign.

Still, time will tell. It'll be interesting to see what the market-share numbers say when the current Bing advertising/PR blitz has faded and the "trial user" phase has passed.