Google vs Microsoft Bing: comparison of search engines

Two major platforms compete in the world of search engines: Google and Microsoft Bing. They process billions of queries every day and provide users with access to information, goods, and services. But which search engine should you choose for your business? Where is advertising more efficient and cost-effective? And who will win in 2025?

In this article, we will analyze the Google and Bing search engines from different angles: their history, market share, advertising costs, and possible results for B2B and B2C businesses.

Creation stories and interesting facts

Google was founded in 1998 by two Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their project was originally called BackRub, as the algorithm evaluated the quality of pages by the number of backlinks. However, the name was soon changed to Google, a derivative of the word «googol», a mathematical term for a number with a hundred zeros. This symbolized the company’s mission: to organize an unlimited amount of information on the Internet.

Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, became Google’s first investor. He wrote a check for 100 thousand dollars, even before the company was officially registered. This money helped Page and Brin get through their difficult journey faster and rent a garage in Menlo Park, where they set up their first office. By the way, this garage later became an iconic place in the history of Silicon Valley.

Since the launch of Google Search, the company has been growing rapidly. In 2000, AdWords, a contextual advertising platform that changed the online advertising market forever, was launched. And in 2004, the company went public with an IPO, after which it began global expansion. In 2015, the Alphabet holding company was created, and under , the first search engine continued to expand its influence in the areas of search, advertising, artificial intelligence (AI), and mobile technologies.

Some interesting facts from the history of Google:

• The google.com domain was registered in 1997, although the company did not yet exist officially;
• The company’s first server was assembled by hand from LEGO bricks to cut down on hardware costs.

The serious history of Bing began later, but the steps towards its creation were already in 1998. That’s when Microsoft launched its first search engine, MSN Search. In the following years, it changed its name several times: first to Windows Live Search, then to Live Search. However, its competitiveness remained low.

In 2009, Microsoft rethought its strategy and launched a completely new product – Bing. The name was not chosen by chance: it had to be short, memorable, and associated with the sound of «search» or «insight» (like the sound of «bingo!»). The first test name of Bing was «Kumo», which means «spider» or «cloud» in Japanese. During the creation of Bing, Microsoft invested about $100 million in marketing to attract users and advertisers.

Bing’s development was boosted by a partnership with Yahoo in 2009. Bing became the basis for Yahoo’s search, which significantly increased its market share. In 2023, Microsoft made another strategic move by integrating OpenAI and ChatGPT artificial intelligence into Bing Search. This was a step towards a new format of dialog search for users and personalized answers to queries.

Interesting facts about the history of Bing:

• In 2008, Microsoft considered buying Yahoo, but the deal fell through. This fact accelerated the development of Bing as an independent search engine.
• In the early years of Bing, Microsoft entered into an agreement with Facebook, which made it possible to display data from the social network, including friends’ «likes», in Bing search.

Statistics on the use of Google and Microsoft Bing in 2024-2025

In 2024-2025, the global search engine market underwent significant changes that affected the shares of major players. According to StatCounter, in February 2025, Google’s share of the global search market was 90.15%, which shows a slight decrease compared to previous years. At the same time, Bing’s share reached 3.95%, strengthening its position in the global market.

In the desktop search engine market, Bing has shown more significant growth. AccordingStatista to , in January 2025, Bing’s share of the global desktop search market was 12.23%, while Google’s was about 81.95%.

It is also worth noting that today B2C brands in Europe receive the most traffic from Google, while B2B companies in the US find their target audience through Bing, thanks to the connection with LinkedIn and Microsoft corporate products.

Differences between contextual advertising on Google and Bing

Contextual advertising in these search engines has a number of differences that affect the choice of a platform for business.

Google Ads offers a huge reach through its search engine and partner sites. The platform is quite sophisticated and ideal for B2C companies, thanks to its integration with YouTube, Google Shopping, and a wide mobile audience. Targeting settings allow you to fine-tune campaigns based on interests, location, and user behavior. Google is also actively using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize ads, improving their relevance and click-through rates.

Microsoft Advertising relies on a targeted approach. The system allows you to launch effective campaigns. Bing Ads reaches professional audiences as well as desktop users. Advertising campaigns here show good conversion rates due to less intense competition and more precise targeting.

The main differences for business:

• Google Ads is better suited for reaching a wide audience and working with B2C audiences, including mobile users.
• Bing Ads is effective for B2B and professional services due to its focus on the business audience.
• Both services offer powerful targeting and analytics tools, but Google focuses on automation, while Bing focuses on data accuracy.

The price of advertising

The cost of advertising on Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads (now known as Microsoft Advertising) is a key factor when choosing a digital marketing platform. Both systems work on the familiar cost-per-click (CPC) model, but have different cost and performance indicators, which is important to consider when planning advertising campaigns.

The cost of advertising in Google Ads

The system provides a large audience reach, which makes it attractive to many advertisers. However, high competition in popular niches such as finance and e-commerce leads to an increase in the cost per click. In these industries, the CPC can exceed several dollars. On average, companies spend between $100 and $10,000 per month on Google Ads, with the average CPC being around $0.45 in commercial niches.

In 2025, Google Ads will become even more sophisticated and efficient. It continues to introduce new features, including improved machine learning algorithms for automatic bidding and expanded ad formats with AR/VR support. These innovations are aimed at increasing the effectiveness of advertising, but can also affect overall costs, according to Brightbid.

The cost of advertising in Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Bing offers competitive pricing, often more attractive to advertisers on a budget. TheConquer The Internet average cost per click is about $1.55, which is 32% lower than the first search engine, according to . Some advertisers report cost savings of up to 70% when switching to Bing Ads.

Other advantages of Microsoft Advertising include less competition for keywords and the ability to target higher income demographics.

Comparison of cost and efficiency

The following differences can be noted:

Let’s look at a few examples to illustrate.

A company that sells SaaS solutions for business automation launched a Bing Ads campaign targeting professions via LinkedIn. The cost per lead was $25, while Google Ads cost $60 for a similar audience. Bing provided a 40% higher return on investment (ROI) due to less competition.

At the same time, the online clothing store launches advertising in Google Ads, receives 70% of traffic from mobile devices, using Google Shopping and dynamic remarketing formats. Due to high Google recognition, sales increase by 25% in the first two weeks.

Comparison of Google and Bing: key differences

Both search engines are sophisticated, powerful tools for finding information, but they differ significantly in a number of ways that affect user experience, search results, and technological architecture.

Below is a detailed analysis of the main differences.

Search technologies and algorithms, AI implementation

Google is known for its advanced algorithms that allow for in-depth analysis of the content of queries and take into account context. These are:

• RankBrain: Machine learning that helps to process complex queries by analyzing the relationships between keywords and context.
• BERT: A technology that allows for a deeper understanding of the nuances of natural language, which is especially useful when processing long and conversational queries.
• MUM: The latest development that is able to analyze multimodal information (text, images, video) and take into account the broader context of the query.

These sophisticated algorithms make search results as relevant as possible, especially when processing complex and conversational queries. Innovative machine learning technologies and scalable infrastructure help Google index and update information quickly.

Bing is also actively developing artificial intelligence technologies. Recently, the platform integrated an artificial intelligence solution from OpenAI, which allows for dialogic capabilities and a more natural understanding of queries. Although Bing’s algorithms are less sophisticated than Google’s, they are focused on improving visual search and integrating with Microsoft products, which provides unique opportunities for desktop and enterprise users.

User interface and visual features

Google’s interface is minimalist and concise. The home page has virtually no distracting elements, allowing the user to focus on the query. Search results are presented in the form of clean lists with separate blocks for knowledge, news summaries, and images.

Bing relies on the visual component. The home page often displays dynamic background images, and search results are accompanied by large images and maps, which creates a more «live» and interactive look. Such features can be especially useful for users who prefer visual perception of information.

Advantages of visual design:

1. Google:

• Minimalist design, focus on simplicity and speed.
• Clear separation between organic results and additional blocks (for example, knowledge panels).

2. Bing:

• Rich visual presentation with dynamic images on the main page.
• Integration of search results with maps, images, and additional information blocks.

Speed and mobile optimization

Google remains an indispensable tool for users on the go thanks to the implementation of effective mobile optimization. Bing, despite being a desktop-focused search engine, is actively innovating to improve the mobile experience, including voice search and visual cues.

Let’s take a look at a comparative table on mobile optimization:

SEO functions, indexing, and database

The effectiveness of SEO directly depends on the ability of search engines to index content and provide tools for website optimization. Google has one of the largest databases in the world, regularly updating the index, which allows it to quickly add new pages and change the positions of existing resources. Thanks to a sophisticated crawling system, the search engine’s algorithms ensure that the results are up-to-date, paying special attention to the quality of the content, its uniqueness, relevance and authority of the source. In addition, the Google Search Console service provides detailed reports, recommendations, and analysis of website performance, which helps resource owners to make improvements and increase visibility in the search results.

Microsoft Bing also strives for high quality indexing and optimization, but its approach is slightly different. Bing uses structured data and proper content markup to provide more accurate website rankings. The Bing Webmaster Tools offer analytical reports and recommendations focused on analyzing the technical and structural characteristics of a website, which allows you to optimize resources to improve your rankings. An additional advantage of Bing is its close integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, which helps to obtain additional data for optimizing and indexing specialized resources.

Below is a comparison table summarizing the main aspects of SEO, indexing, and databases of both search engines.

Thus, Google continues to be a leader in fast and deep indexing, and provides extensive tools for SEO optimization. At the same time, Bing, despite having a smaller database, relies on structured indexing and tight integration with other Microsoft products, which is especially useful for niche and corporate resources. These differences play a key role in how website owners and SEO specialists build their strategies for each of the search engines.

Which search engine to choose?

Google and Microsoft Bing are powerful tools with artificial intelligence (AI) and sophisticated technology. Google provides the largest coverage and high accuracy, while Bing has an attractive visual interface, favorable advertising conditions, and strong capabilities for corporate users. To maximize your reach, you should use both platforms, adapting your strategy to different devices and regions.

Pavlo Vlasiuk

CMO

Author's page