Where are people conducting their Internet searches?

How many companies can truly say their brand has defined the marketplace? Even fewer can claim that their brand has practically become a verb. Google is among the few who can make this claim, as the term "Google" has become ubiquitous with the act of conducting an Internet search.

There's still no doubt that Google is the behemoth in the search engine marketplace, but recent developments have shown that its competitors are making gains. Despite significant ad spends attempting to add the "Bing it" phrase into popular culture, you're still not as likely to hear someone tell their friend to "Bing" something. However, searches increased on the Microsoft-powered Bing by 29 percent from December 2009 to December 2010 according to digital tracking agency comScore's 2010 Digital Year in Review.

Bing recently began managing and serving the searches on Yahoo! as part of the merger between the two search engines, which also helped its numbers. According to comScore, here's each company's share of searches conducted on the Internet as of December 2010:

* Google - 69.4 percent
* Bing - 24.4 percent
* Other search engines - 6.2 percent

As you've probably heard, search engines have also changed the way companies market themselves, with search advertising becoming an exploding industry. Ten years ago, hiring a PPC agency (pay-per-click) or SEM marketing (search engine marketing) firm was something most advertising executives had never heard of. But thanks to applications such as Google AdWords, companies are scrambling to rank higher than each other in Internet searches.

Since Google has driven much of what has occurred in the world of search advertising, many search engine marketing firms are chiefly concerned with making their clients more visible on Google's network. However, with Bing's recent surge in popularity, it may be unwise to throw all your search advertising eggs in Google's basket.

If you're looking to step up your company's search marketing efforts, consider firms that not only increase your exposure on Google, but also offer their expertise in aiding your placement on other search properties, most notably on Bing. While nobody would argue that Google is still the king, the 30 percent of searches that occur outside of Google is too large a number to ignore.