Last month, Microsoft unveiled its new browser, Internet Explorer 9. It seems that consumers who have the most up-to-date version of the company's Internet Explorer are increasingly search with Bing, and search marketers should take note.
According to research from Chitika, Bing usage across the IE versions shows that the portal is most popular with users of the newest browser from Microsoft. Bing is the search engine of choice for 22.9 percent of IE9 users, showing an increase over earlier versions. (For IE8, Bing has just 16.9 percent usage.)
As Search Engine Land points out, Google remains the dominant search engine among IE users. However, the source also notes that Bing's major IE gains occur simultaneously with a drop in Google usage. The search giant is used by more than two-thirds of IE 8 searchers, while it is used by just 56.3 percent of IE9 users.
While this likely doesn't mean that Bing is about to take over the web, search marketers should note that IE users seem increasingly open to Microsoft's search portal – and optimizing for Bing is wise.
IE users represent a broad online demographic. According to StatCounter data, Internet Explorerer is the most popular browser by far, representing nearly half of the browser market in March 2011.
