Yahoo Search Bing-ified

Microsoft won’t fully power Yahoo’s search until 2012, but the algorithmic transition that will prepare the way has begun in earnest.

In a few days, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing back end will begin handling some Yahoo (YHOO) search results, and by the end of the week Yahoo users in the U.S. and Canada should start seeing a “Powered by Bing” bug at the bottom of their search results pages. Once the North American transition is finished, Bing will power 5.2 billion monthly searches–about 31.6 percent of the U.S. search market, according to Microsoft. According to comScore’s latest search market metrics, it’s more like 28.1 percent–significantly better than the 11 percent share Microsoft currently claims, but a far cry from Google’s (GOOG) 65.8 percent.