...with a fair amount of skepticism due to the timing etc. Now Mashable reports that Compete.com has released US traffic stats that shows Bing is making some progress in more than just search.

So after a month, where are we? We knew that Bing was growing, but the numbers being released tonight tell a tale of success, as Bing is now the 13th most visited site on the web.

It doesnt matter who you are or how down on Microsoft you can get that is not a bad start. Sure, much of the early success can be attributed to the $100 million in advertising etc but thats why companies do those kinds of things, right? Microsoft must feel at least a little joy from seeing this kind of reaction out of the gate. After all, there were more than a handful of folks who felt that the whole Bing thing would be a ginormous fail but that appears to be just some of the usual Microsoft nay saying at this point in time.

So early on, and with the obvious benefit of a ton of Bing buzz, Bing had more US visitors in June than Digg, Twitter and CNN. We all need to take a deep breath though before we anoint Bing a true success.

Where will the search decision engine be in the 4th quarter as the online holiday shopping season progresses (or doesnt since this year already looks like it might be a dud)? Will the professed strengths of Bing really make an impact thus influencing search behavior which then turns into market share gain against Google and Yahoo? Those are the better questions but for now well let Microsoft have a restrained celebration for this good start.

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