Once again Microsoft proves that, with enough money lining your pockets, you can achieve anything. The numbers are in from Bing's first month of existence, and they bode well for the new search engine's future. Complete.com, a U.S. Web traffic tracker, reports that over 49 million unique visitors viewed Bing over the course of its first month.

To give you some perspective, that puts Bing ahead of both Digg.com and Twitter. While Bing is still miles behind Google (over 145 million unique visitors in June) they are clearly off to an excellent start. It's pretty clear that something Microsoft is doing (whether it's the advertising or the quality of their engine is up for debate) is working.

As impressive as these numbers are, it's important to remember that one month of success does not mean that Bing has any staying power. If they're showing equal or greater numbers in six months, Microsoft will have real cause to celebrate. Right now they're going to have to make damn sure not to rest on their laurels, and continue to do everything possible to keep Bing in the public eye.

Once it's no longer a new and novel service, they are going to see a dip in traffic. Bing's staying power will depend on how many long-time users they can convert during this 'boom' period. I'm not sure what the best way for Microsoft to go about doing that is, but continuous innovation and listening closely to consumer desires are a good place to start.

It's starting to look more and more like Google could have a real fight on their hands.