But what Google certainly does have is hegemony – with nearly 90% of the UK search market its competitors have their work cut out, with the likes of Yahoo – the second largest search engine - hemorrhaging users.

And what will Microsoft’s Bing bring to the table?  Well Microsoft are certainly backing it in a BIG way – spending $80 - $100 million on a total repositioning of their previous offering -  Live Search.   Microsoft are advertising heavily across all forms of media – TV, online, press, radio, social networking sites (see @bing on twitter) and are certainly prepared to spend hard to try and get people to break their Google habit.

As well as their huge media spend, Microsoft are trying to differentiate their new brand as a ‘decision engine’ rather than a ‘search engine’.  They claim that 42% of internet searches require refinement as it is rare to find the search you are looking for on your first attempt.  Microsoft ascertain that Bing can help you with your decision making, by quickly helping to refine your search and by offering you a list of topics of related interest.

So how successful will Bing be in overcoming the dominating force of Google?

Well firstly I struggle with the name – mainly because I think Google is a great name and I love what they do with the logo – changing it on a day to day basis!  Bing still makes me think of Friends’ Chandler Bing every time it crops up in conversation, or even of that guy that knocked up Liz Hurley a few years back! (surely I’m not the only one?!)

Bing has performed well in the US since its launch on 1^st June, gaining 16% market share – catapulting itself into second place ahead of Yahoo with 10% and causing Google to fall from 78% to 72%.  However there is likely to be a lot of early curiosity creeping into these figures (I myself have used Bing several times this week just to ‘try it out’ – though I am a Google loyal really J  ) I don’t think Google has too much to be worried about (as yet). I don’t believe that people are especially loyal to their Google experience, but it’s a simple process and until something comes along that changes the whole way we search, it will continue to offer a solution which seems simplest to advertisers and users. So I won’t be holding my breath yet for Bing to start stripping away Google’s finances. But any new innovation is obviously a good thing; the search world will be stronger for having more than one option and way of doing things.