(Yes, I just “verbed” Microsoft’s new search engine… I feel a little dirty.)

Since Microsoft released Bing in June, the new search engine has outperformed many people’s expectations. Unlike the ill-fated “Live,” Microsoft’s last attempt to introduce a search engine to go up against Google, Bing has been steadily gaining ground on its mammoth competitor.

In fact, comScore has reported that Bing captured 9.3% of the search market share in August, which is a 4.5% jump over its performance in July. And when Bing fully takes over for Yahoo search, that number is probably going to continue to climb.

But let’s not forget — Google still controls the lion’s share of the market, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon, especially withGoogle Wavewaiting in the wings.

So what do you think? Does Bing present a real threat to Google’s monopoly on the search market? Or is it always going to be a mouse nibbling at the crumbs left behind by the elephant?

Talk among yourselves, folks… we’re interested to hear what you have to say.

This internet marketing news update brought to you by imc @ Do you “Bing?”