Google and Microsoft are still battling it out to the top, this time within the search realm. Microsoft Bing has been steadfastly snatching Google’s customers, as seen in the latest May 2011 Search Market Share Report by Compete. While Google remains the leader, Bing’s rapid growth has been stealing the spotlight away with a US market share increase of 75% while the former recorded a drop from 73.9% to 63.6%.  A decrease in query volume was also observed within Google’s field.

Google is fast to realize what they may be lacking in various departments. In this light, the company s ready to react, having recently launched a new image and voice search feature—a move that could put more pressure on Bing, and even Yahoo!, spurring them both to begin climbing up in numbers. Analyst Hadley Reynolds noticed this and said, “While Bing and Yahoo have been rightly focused on the ‘decision engine’ capabilities of search and delivering people more meat and fewer links, Google is changing the character of the search experience with Instant Page, image search, and their other new features.With the size of Google’s audience, they get to condition what the market expects from the search experience, and that makes it hard for Bing and Yahoo not to counter with similar capabilities, even as they continue to try to differentiate themselves.”

Another update from Google is the introduction of Recipe View—an area where one can find several kinds of recipes that allow a user to search using the chef’s name and other detailed instructions. The enterprise is also looking at mobile and social businesses. They just boosted speed inside their search engine, primarily making improvements within the mobile world.

But improved features of Microsoft Bing have helped them poach even the most loyal Google customers. Some two to three years ago, Google seemed to be immovable from the pedestal. But, another giant attempted to outgun the king—and they are, inch-by-inch, becoming quite successful. On the other hand, Google remains calm with regular updates on search functionalities. Early this year, they announced an important change in the search algorithm. Clearly, any boost on Bing’s development comes at Google’s expense, but the industry is slowly making a change.