Bing Not a Search Engine?

[Matt]

Hello,

I use 3 different analytics software: AwStats, Google Analytics and Mint. Now since Bing.com - The new search engine from Microsoft - launched, I have been getting some good traffic from them, one thing I have noticed however is that the traffic is showing the origin as a referral rather than from a search engine.

I wonder if Microsoft did this intentionally if so...why? I can't see there being a good reason.

[avery18]

what happened to live? it's suppose to replace live?

[Matt]

Yes, Bing is Microsoft's new search engine, it has replaced Live.com, it seems to work well and ranking's are good but I don't understand why it shows as a referral not a search engine origin.

[Jani]

May be it is not Microsoft but Google who is not treating it as search engine but just a referral?

[Matt]

No, because it shows up as a referral in AwStats and Mint Stats which have nothing to do with Google either.

[avery18]

so this way they can be the #1 referral engine...and let the big G be the #1 search engine. HA!

[Matt]

Maybe but if they are a search engine, why would they want to be number 1 referral engine? Seems odd, I think it could be because the stats programs didn't yet add it as a search engine.

[Jani]

I asked this question on Bing Community and this is what I heard from them.

We have word from Google Analytics team that it is their fault and they are working on it.

From: Betsy, Aoki, bing program manager

Our bot is remaining MSNBot for the foreseeable future.

When I told them that one of my friend using Mint and Awstats and they both are showing traffic from bing as /referral. I did not heard any word back from them.

[Matt]

Ok, wonder whether they have to change the MSNBot to the new domain, I will wait a few weeks and maybe it will fix itself.

[jamey]

yes Matt, the reason why bing traffic shows up like referral traffic and not as search engine traffic is because of various checks that are done by the statistics software you use that do not search for bing in the referrer.

For example: Traffic that comes from a google search is also traffic that has a referrer. But because that referrer: Google is a search engine, statistics software will take and analyze that url even further in order to extract details such as the search term that was used. It is very useful to differentiate this kind of traffic.

But how does a statistic software know when they are dealing with a search engine and when with a normal referrer? It's very simple actually. They check for things like google.xx/search or search.yahoo.xx/search, or other such string in the referrer.

The reason why bing doesn't show it's because they don't check for it yet. Don't worry though, the software will be updated with the new search engine definitions and bing will be shown in the search engine area.

[mit]

Originally Posted by Matt

No, because it shows up as a referral in AwStats and Mint Stats which have nothing to do with Google either.

OK..and what about in Google Analytics..Sorry but I haven't seen any traffic from Bing.com for my site.

[diagurzula]

Originally Posted by Matt

Hello,

I use 3 different analytics software: AwStats, Google Analytics and Mint. Now since Bing.com - The new search engine from Microsoft - launched, I have been getting some good traffic from them, one thing I have noticed however is that the traffic is showing the origin as a referral rather than from a search engine.

I wonder if Microsoft did this intentionally if so...why? I can't see there being a good reason.

I am not agree with you...
Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.

[saviourdlima]

Bing is the current web search engine from Microsoft. Bing was unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego.
Notable changes include the listing of search suggestions as queries are entered and a list of related searches (called "Explorer pane") based on semantic technology from Power set that Microsoft purchased in 2008. As of January 2010 Bing is the third largest search engine on the web by query, volume, at 3.16%, after its competitor Google at 85.35% and Yahoo at 6.15%, according to Net Applications.

[lukepedru]

Bing is a search engine, It's provides a list of possible extended search queries on the left sidebar, and a list of useful direct links to Google services below the first result. It also lists ’similar’ searches on the right sidebar with alternative services – Bing being the first one they recommend. It also displays a box that you can use to jump to Google search, and it keeps track of your search history right on the page, unless you turn that feature off.