Microsoft seems to have clawed a bit of market share from Google with its Bing search engine. According to data from US net measurement firm ComScore Microsoft's share of the search market has grown from 8.9 per cent in July to 9.3 per cent in August. Google's share dipped slightly as a result.

While 9.3 per cent is not considered much by lay observers, it is a significant increase for a new entrant, claim analysts. It means that Google is no longer the immediate choice for everyone. (No, but it is for 90 percent of people.sub.ed.)

It is not clear however how much Microsoft actually spent on marketing to get this tiny ripple of growth. In fact it might have been cheaper to send $100 to each new user as a bribe to get the to use the new search engine.

Google is already working on an update to its current search engine called “Caffeine" which is still in testing.