Bing
Bing (Microsoft Bing) is Microsoft's web search engine, launched on 3 June 2009 to replace Live Search. According to StatCounter, in October 2026 it held a 4.8% share of the search engine market worldwide and 7.66% in Poland. Bing's index also powers other services, including Yahoo and Ecosia. Since 2023 Bing has combined classic results with AI-generated answers, today as part of Microsoft Copilot. Site owners manage their visibility in Bing through the free Bing Webmaster Tools.
What is Bing?
According to StatCounter, Bing is the second-largest search engine in the world, after Google. It belongs to Microsoft and is the default search engine in the Microsoft Edge browser.
| Feature | Bing |
|---|---|
| Owner | Microsoft |
| Launch | 3 June 2009 |
| Predecessors | MSN Search, Windows Live Search, Live Search |
| Worldwide share (StatCounter, Oct 2026) | 4.8% |
| Share in Poland (StatCounter, Oct 2026) | 7.66% |
| Services using Bing's results | including Yahoo, Ecosia, DuckDuckGo (as one of its sources) |
| AI assistant | Microsoft Copilot, formerly Bing Chat |
| Tool for site owners | Bing Webmaster Tools |
In the same period, according to StatCounter, Google had a 91.05% share worldwide and 89.42% in Poland. Bing is therefore the second player, but a much smaller one.
Bing's reach is larger than its share suggests. Yahoo and Ecosia use its results, and DuckDuckGo uses them as one of several sources.
How did Bing come about?
Bing is the latest version of a search engine Microsoft has been developing since 1998 under various names. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Bing name on 28 May 2009.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1998 | MSN Search launches |
| 11 September 2006 | final release of Windows Live Search |
| 21 March 2007 | renamed Live Search |
| 3 June 2009 | Bing launches to replace Live Search |
| 29 July 2009 | deal with Yahoo: Bing starts powering Yahoo's search |
| 18 October 2021 | Bing and Yandex launch the IndexNow protocol |
| 7 February 2023 | new Bing with a chat based on OpenAI's GPT-4 |
| 15 November 2023 | Bing Chat is folded into Microsoft Copilot |
| 4 April 2025 | Copilot Search in Bing is announced |
| 11 August 2025 | Bing Search APIs are retired |
| February 2026 | AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools |
The Yahoo deal was signed for 10 years. Yahoo kept its own interface, while Bing supplied the search results. The transition of Yahoo users was completed in early 2012.
Since August 2025 Microsoft no longer offers Bing Search APIs. As a replacement it points to Grounding with Bing Search in Azure AI Agents, a service that supplies web data to language models.
How does Bing use artificial intelligence?
In February 2023 Microsoft combined Bing's results with an AI chat. The chat ran on OpenAI's GPT-4 model.
In March 2023 Bing passed 100 million active users. In November 2023 Microsoft folded Bing Chat into the Microsoft Copilot assistant.
In April 2025 Microsoft announced Copilot Search in Bing. It is a mode that combines classic search results with answers generated by Copilot. According to Search Engine Roundtable, it replaced the earlier Deep Search feature.
Copilot's answers cite pages from Bing's index. That is why visibility in Bing also affects whether a site appears in Microsoft's AI answers.
How do you look after a site's visibility in Bing?
Visibility in Bing is managed through Bing Webmaster Tools and the IndexNow protocol. They are the counterparts of the tools Google offers in Google Search Console.
Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free tool for site owners. It shows traffic from Bing, lets you submit sitemaps and check indexing problems. A site can be added manually or imported from Google Search Console.
In February 2026 the tool gained the AI Performance report, released as a preview. It shows how often a site's content is cited in AI answers.
| Metric in the AI Performance report | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Total Citations | the number of times the site's content is cited in AI answers |
| Average Cited Pages | the number of unique pages cited per day |
| Grounding Queries | the phrases for which AI finds and cites the content |
| Page-Level Citation Activity | citations broken down by URL |
The report covers Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and selected partner integrations.
IndexNow is an open protocol through which a site itself notifies search engines about new, changed or deleted URLs. Bing and Yandex launched it on 18 October 2021, and Naver joined in July 2023. Google does not support IndexNow and relies on its own crawling.
The basics of optimisation are similar to Google: a site accessible to crawlers, correct indexing and valuable content. An SEO audit helps assess the site's condition in both search engines.
Frequently asked questions
Q.Who owns Bing?
Bing belongs to Microsoft. The company launched it on 3 June 2009 as the successor to Live Search. Before that it developed its search engine under the names MSN Search and Windows Live Search. Bing is the default search engine in the Microsoft Edge browser. Other services, including Yahoo and Ecosia, also use its results.
Q.What is Bing's market share in Poland?
According to StatCounter, in October 2026 Bing had a 7.66% share of the search engine market in Poland. Worldwide its share was 4.8%. In the same period Google had 89.42% in Poland and 91.05% worldwide. Bing remains the second search engine, but far behind the leader.
Q.How does Bing differ from Google?
Bing and Google are separate search engines with their own indexes and algorithms. Bing belongs to Microsoft, and its AI answers are produced by Copilot. Bing supports the IndexNow protocol, which Google does not. Bing is monitored in Bing Webmaster Tools, and Google in Google Search Console. Google has a much larger market share.
Q.Is it worth optimising a site for Bing?
Bing has a smaller share than Google, but its results also feed Yahoo, Ecosia and Copilot's answers. The basics of optimisation are shared by both search engines. The extra work is mainly adding the site to Bing Webmaster Tools and possibly implementing IndexNow. The AI Performance report will also show the site's citations in AI answers.
Q.What sources is this description based on?
Search engine market shares worldwide and in Poland for October 2026 come from StatCounter Global Stats. Dates from Bing's history, the Yahoo deal and the development of the AI chat are described in the “Microsoft Bing” article on English Wikipedia. Microsoft announced the retirement of Bing Search APIs on its “Bing Search API retirement” page. The launch of Copilot Search is described by Search Engine Roundtable, and the AI Performance report by the agency Koozai. The history of the IndexNow protocol comes from the “IndexNow” article on Wikipedia.
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