Bing Boosted

Microsoft's search engine, Bing, has gained market share against its rivals:

Microsoft's search engine — renamed Bing as part of a June overhaul — ended July with a 8.9 percent share in the United States, up from 8.4 percent in the previous month, according to comScore Inc. Just before Bing's debut, Microsoft's search market share stood at 8 percent.

Google retained a commanding U.S. lead at 64.7 percent through July, down from 65 percent in June, comScore said. Yahoo's market share dipped to 19.3 percent in July from 19.6 percent in June.

Bing's boost isn't surprising. When Microsoft helpfully suggested that I upgrade my browser to Internet Explorer 8, the default search engine turned into Bing. I've manually changed it back to Google on our three PC's, but many users will hardly notice and go along.