Microsoft Rebrands Live Search As "Bing"

JacobSteelsmith writes "Microsoft is attempting to re-brand its Live Search, also known as Kumo. Bing, as it's known, is another attempt by Microsoft to lure consumers away from Internet search leaders such as Google. Microsoft has posted a quarterly loss in its online advertising business, compared to Google's sales, $4.7 billion in the first quarter. According to the Live Search blog, Bing goes 'beyond the traditional search engines to help you make faster, more informed decisions' by combining a 'great search engine' with organized results. It also adds unique tools to help the user make important decisions. It is being touted as a 'decision engine.'"

Re:We use the search engine that goes bing!

[Kaki Nix Sain]

Here is the link for you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arCITMfxvEc [youtube.com]

BING stands for...

[Anonymous Coward]

But It's Not Google.

I guess M$ is tired of people saying "But it's not Microsoft" so they are turning the tables.

Maybe someday they will try turning the tables with better products.

HAHAHAHA.. like that would ever happen!

cashback?

[Reality Master 201]

According to the Why Bing [decisionengine.com] page:

And features like cashback, where we actually give you money back on great products, and
Price Predictor, which actually tells you when to buy an airline ticket in order to help get you
the best price -- help you make smarter decisions, and put money back in your pocket.

The price predictor thing sound kinda cool (though pretty easy to clone).

But giving money back on "great products?" Is that like discounts on MS software, or some other silly gimmick? Smells faintly like desperation, that does. I guess we'll see.

What's going on

[Phroggy]

I'm a little confused, but as best I can figure out:

Microsoft is developing a new search engine that will replace Live Search. The new engine was going to be called Kumo, but they've decided to call it Bing instead. It's still in development and not yet available to the public, but eventually it will be online at bing.com. Presumably, once Bing launches, live.com will redirect there. The search field on msn.com (which most IE users have set as their home page) will redirect there too.

Since the new engine isn't available to the public and most people weren't aware that it was going to be called Kumo, this rebranding is a complete non-story.

Re:Terminology

[John Hasler]

Google fourth quarter 2008 [eweek.com] Google first quarter 2009 [cnn.com]

Re:I can already tell it's going to suck...

[Chazerizer]

This is going to be designed for people who are actually clueless. I give you a direct quote from the page on the site. "While more searchable information is cool, nearly half of all searches don't result in the answer that people are seeking." I don't know about you, but I only fail to get the information I want if I'm looking for something really esoteric or poorly defined, like what the name of the bar is next door to where Fuddruckers used to be on the North Shore, or the name of the guy who invented the Eton Wall Game. You can't get that information on the web because it doesn't exist there (and may not exist anywhere). The problem with most of these comments is who they come from. Slashdotters (like myself), typically don't have a ton of problems with the internet. This isn't designed around us. It's designed for people who really have no idea how the whole thing works.

Re:I can already tell it's going to suck...

[Anonymous Coward]

The background image (including the "hotspots" that link to searches related to the image) is loaded asynchronously after the page (including the search box) is rendered, so the image itself should not slow down a user.

http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/07/30/new-home-page-aims-to-help-you-explore-more-on-the-web.aspx

Re:But What If ...

[coxxx011]

Microsoft obviously wants the street cred that comes with a Friends reference....

Chandler Bing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Bing [wikipedia.org]

"I don't like what the WENOS is telling me!"

Re:Give up

[GooberToo]

Finally someone that figured it out.

Microsoft is not a technology company. They have not been a technology company for well over a decade. Microsoft is, rather than a tech company, one of the world's most powerful marketing companies. They just happen to be a marketing company that does some development too.

I used to challenge people to name three MS technology innovations. To date, no one has been able to do it. True tech companies innovate.

Re:cashback?

[SaDan]

The cash back stuff is tied affiliate marketing/advertising, which is what MS is trying to tie in to their search results. I see mention of http://farecast.com/ [farecast.com] in other comments, but I believe most of their "tech" for the cash back program was pulled out of http://jellyfish.com/ [jellyfish.com] . MS purchased jellyfish.com a while back, sucked all the goodness out of them, and tossed the carcass aside recently during layoffs.

There are still plenty of really good sites for finding deals, and http://fatwallet.com/ [fatwallet.com] offers a competitive cash back program as well. Why wade through all the meaningless search results when trying to shop online, when you could go some place that ONLY has good deals? This is why MS's search will fail as a revenue generating product.

Wii

[Longfinger]

If the Slashdot crowd's reaction to a new brand has any predictive power, then Bing is going to be a big hit.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/27/1625208 [slashdot.org]

Re:But What If ...

[Cinder6]

The word google does vaguely imply searching, looking, grepping. To me anyway.

That's because in 10 years you had the time to associate the word "google" with "search".

Yeah, I know it's a misspelling for "goggle" but I never made the connection myself.

You make a good point, but I'd just like to point out that it's a misspelling of "googol" (10^100), not "google" :)