The truth, though, is that the change is not nearly as dramatic as it appears at a glance. While Bing has, according to certain data, minimally increased Microsoft’s search market share, Google’s position has not significantly shifted.

Bing vs. Google: The Buzz

All the buzz comes from a new search market analysis by Web stats company StatCounter. Bing, the researchers say, secured 8.23 percent of all U.S.-based searches for the month of June. (Bing officially launched on June 3.) The previous month, StatCounter shows Microsoft sitting at 7.81 percent of U.S. searches. That amounts to a month-to-month increase of just under half a percentage point following Bing’s debut.

Google, during that same time span, dropped from 78.72 percent to 78.48 of U.S. searches — a decrease of 0.24 percent, according to StatCounter’s data. Looking back to April, the difference becomes slightly less apt to be obliterated by a sneeze: Google’s two-month drop amounts to 0.59 percent, while Microsoft’s April-to-June gain comes out to 1.02 percent.