It's been about a year since I briefly analyzed the quality of results on the newly launched Bing "decision engine" and it's fair to say that Bing has raised the bar in the search market. Since its launch in June 2009, Bing has been steadily gaining marketshare – mainly at the expense of Google – up from 8.0% in June 2009 to 12.7% in June 2010, while Google has decreased from 65.0% to 62.6% during the same period, according to comScore. Remember, before Bing's launch, Microsoft's MSN and Live search engines' marketshare had been steadily declining.  And with Bing to be powering all of Yahoo!'s search queries by the end of the year, it will leave just two engines (major powerhouses) to battle it out.

This steady shift in marketshare has not gone unnoticed at Google by any means. In fact, many would argue that Google has made more UI and algorithm/indexing updates within the last 12 months than it has in any other year's span. Many of these updates mimic the new features that Bing has brought to the table. And for updates that don't mimic Bing's new features – Google has made sure to let you know each one of them.

Let's take a look at some of Google's major updates within the last year:

1. Search Options

   First announced in May 2009, which allowed users to refine searches through options in a left hand panel, more functionality was announced in October 2009.

   Google May 2009:

    

   After conducting a search, users had the option select "Show Options" under the Google logo, which would open a left panel that allows users to refine the search by content type and time of index.

   Google October 2009:

   

   In October, functionality was added to refine by:  past hour, specific date range, more shopping sites, fewer shopping sites, visited pages, not yet visited, books, blogs and news.

   The Search Options aren't necessarily a response to Bing since many of them were in place before Bing actually launched. But, the effort Google had been making to enhance its UI following the launch of Bing is probably not a coincidence. Google's addition of a left hand panel to refine search is very similar to the various options Bing has sported all along in its left hand panel.

2. Image Search Options

   Announced in July 2009, Google began allowing users to access existing tools in a new left hand panel to filter images by type, size, and color. Bing has offered similar functionality since its launch.

   Google Images, July 2009:

   

   Bing:

   

3. Google Caffeine

   First announced in August 2009 and live last month, Caffeine is a new indexing system that is "50 percent fresher" than its original index and is the "largest collection of web content" in Google's history. Essentially, Caffeine allows Google to make content that it crawls searchable within seconds, therefore augmenting its real-time search efforts.

   The chatter around Caffeine was rampant in the blogging community following the announcement a year ago and was largely due to Google's heavy communication on the matter. They issued blog posts, had Matt Cutts talking about it and provided a developer preview. The messaging around Caffeine was aimed to reassure you that Google is on the forefront of creating the best search experience for its users.

4. New UI

   The most noticeable update within the last year was the new user interface launched in May 2010. The metamorphosis of the results page according to Google was "in response to the increasing richness of the web and the increasing power of search — revealing search tools on the left and updating the visual look and feel throughout." While that all may be true, the new layout seems like a step towards Bing's SERP.

   Google's reskinned and present-day SERP:

   

   Google is using the three-column layout (search options, main results, and ads) that other engines have been using for a while, including Ask, Bing, and Yahoo!. Almost all of the left hand panel functionality existed before (hidden under options), now it appears on the left automatically. They renamed "Web" to "Everything" and it was all essentially a "re-skin" without any algorithm updates that affect rankings.

   Bing's SERP:

   

   Bing's left hand panel doesn't have as many options as Google and mainly focuses on related search queries for refinement and your search history, which is based on a cookie.

5. Homepage Background (Fail)

   When Google forced an image background on its homepage last month (just like Bing has been doing since launch), it didn't go over well with users. In fact, it only lasted 14 hours and prompted the search term; "remove google background" as the seventh most popular search that day. Google is now back to the basic white background and offers the option to change the background through an icon at the bottom of the page. They said it was only an [failed] experiment.

   Google Homepage with Default Image Background:

   

   Bing Homepage (Image changes daily):

   

6. Flight Search (announced)

   Earlier this month, Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA, a Boston-based airline flight data company. Google plans to use the data to allow users to search airfares within their UI, much like, (guess who?) Bing.

   Bing's Flight Search:

   

7. Google Image Search

Announced last week, Google Images relaunched with a new and improved way to search for images. Instead of showing ten or so images on a page, you can now scroll through 1,000+ images within the same page. There’s also some extra functionality like being able to hover over the image, which gives you a larger preview and some more info about the image.

Google Images, July 2010:

The new layout is starkly similar to Bing’s Image search, which has been live since their launch.

Competition's a Good Thing

When Bing launched, Google released a statement:

We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice. Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space—it makes us all work harder.

Homepage background images aside, I think it's fair to say Google has lived up to that statement within the last year by making themselves aware of their competition and working hard to improve the search experience. Let's hope both engines keep raising the bar so the search experience continues to evolve for the better.