Microsoft unveils new Internet search engine

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft has unveiled a new search engine named Bing, renewing its efforts to challenge the dominance of Google in the Internet search market.

The company said the new service will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide June 3.

“Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don’t do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find,” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions,” he added.

Microsoft said the Bing service, billed by the company as a Decision Engine, will initially focus on shopping, travel, local business and information, and health-related research - areas in which people want more assistance in making key decisions.

The software giant still has a long way to go to increase its share in the search market.

According to latest analysis by market research firm comScore, in April this year, Google led the US search market with 64.2 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo with 20.4 percent, with Microsoft a distant third with 8.2 percent.