Google has introduced a feature called ‘similar images’ which sound remarkably similar to a feature on Bing called Search Similar. It is a rare occasion when Google appears to have taken a nod from Bing, who is feverishly trying to become a “stronger number two”.
Similar Search has been available on Bing since its launch, and existed on Live Search before that. The same feature has been available on Google Labs since April, and is set to be introduced to the Google site proper.
Search Similar on Bing and Google
If you searched for ‘beetle’, for example, you can utilise the ‘find similar images’ option to discover further images of either the car or the insect. By clicking on Google Similar Images or Bing’s Search Similar button beside an image of a Volkswagen Beetle the search will throw up auto images without any unwanted insects.
Search Market Share
As the battle between Google and Bing increases in ferocity it is interesting to see Google mimicking a feature on Bing. According to ComScore’s most recent report, Google commanded 64.9 percent of the market in September, which is a small improvement on August. Bing remained in roughly the same position, moving up to 9.4 from 9.3 percent. Yahoo dropped from 19.3 percent to 18.8 percent over the same period.
The Bing-Yahoo Deal
The forthcoming tie up between Bing and Yahoo looks as if it will create a search platform with around 30 percent of the search market – a figure that SEO specialists from around the world will not be able to ignore. Implementing features such as this will prove invaluable if Bing is to eat into Google’s share, having used its huge Microsoft bank balance to buy itself a respectable chunk of the market. Bing won’t like the fact that Google has matched it with a similar feature, but adopt-and-improve is a staple of the web game.
There are some details to the Bing-Yahoo deal that need to be ironed out, probably involving regulatory approval from US and European authorities, but once they get the go ahead it is certain that the SEO industry will begin taking more note of the algorithm and difficult decisions may have to be made in order to rank well in both engines. For example making an on or off-site change to a given website might see a small drop in that site’s ranking on Google but a jump of 20 positions on Bing. When 30 percent of users start searching with the Bing-Yahoo algorithm, webmasters and SEO specialists are likely to be presented with these difficult decisions on a more regular basis.
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