Google vs. Bing: How It Works

Ten years ago, you could use SEM on a dozen or more search engines. Today, the only ones worth caring about are Google and Bing. In the past 10 years, Google has become so widely used that it has virtually wiped out all of its search engine competitors. When someone wants to search for a product or service on the Web, they say to themselves, “I’ll Google it!”

At this point, Google represents roughly 80% of all search engine traffic on the Internet. Bing represents the other 20%, but is growing fast. (We have yet to see if “I’ll Bing it!” will become another widely used Internet verb phrase.)

Google’s brand name for its SEM advertising program is Google AdWords. The company also uses the AdWords brand to refer to the keywords and keyword phrases that you bid on when posting an SEM or display ad on Google. Microsoft’s brand name for its SEM advertising program on Bing is Microsoft AdCenter.