Users of Bing, the Microsoft search engine, search for “Google” more than any other search term, according to declared Alphabet in an EU antitrust case.
The lawyer and partner at the law firm Garrigues, based in Brussels, Alfonso Lamadrid, revealed that “Google” is the most common search term on Bing while trying to overturn Google’s $5 billion antitrust fine.
Lamadrid argued that People use Google for the convenience of their search engine, not because they need to:
We present evidence to show that the most common query on Bing is by far Google.
People use Google because they choose, not because they are forced to. Google’s market share in general searches is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google over rival search engines.
In 2018, Google was fined $5.1 billion for abusing Android’s dominance to attract more users to its search engine.
According to a blog post by SEO tools developer Ahrefs, “Google” ranked first with more than 40 million Bing searches worldwide in 2021 alone, followed by “Youtube”, «Facebook», «Gmail» and “Amazons”.
The most likely reason Google is the most searched term is because Bing is the default search engine on both Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge. Windows users setting up a new laptop or desktop computer often use Microsoft’s browser before installing Google Chrome with their preferred search engine, Google Search.
Whether Lamadrid’s argument will help Google get its $5 billion EU fine will be decided by the judge in the case.