Microsoft never caught the eye of the storm when it comes to online search endeavor. MSN Search, even when rebranded by the name of Windows Live Search, never stood up to its feet to pose serious threat to the biggest searching phenomena called Google. Recent times saw the exponential growth of Google and its all-out domination left a little space for others to cope with. Still, Live Search didn’t accumulate the guts to be at least a distant second on the scene. Yahoo, on the other hand, is holding the crown for biggest site on the web, even with constant threats coming up from Google.
Microsoft’s recent idealization of recreating, rejuvenating and obviously rebranding Live Search is not just a timid update to catch up with latest tech but actually a desperate attempt to gain as much share as it can on search market. Even if they have stepped on online marketing through their search business, Windows and Office suits are still the biggest assets for Microsoft. And in a time when both of their coveted platforms are going into the right direction, winning a huge appreciation from tech enthusiasts and creating stirs among the crowd, they can finally concentrate hard on Live Search with a happy and relaxed mind. Since Windows Live services started getting regular updates in recent times and was upgraded to Wave 3, it was obvious for Live Search to get something new and neat like rest of brand. And Microsoft, staging a complete reincarnation, didn’t just want to sport a new look rather than a complete rebranding. For the purpose, they had couple of codenames lined up, creating rumors of ‘Kumo’. Early screenshots of rumored Kumo started appearing on internet a few months ago and that represented a rough sketch of what’s coming.
Kumo, while just an internal codename, had mixed remarks from internet users. Since the advent of Google, it became a popular term and even a verb to represent a web search in general. It’s now more obvious to hear or say “Google it”, “Let me Google it for you” etc. Human mind always gets attracted by innovative and sometimes weird terms to describe something, Google perfectly exemplifies that. Now, Kumo, according to the same rule, neither brings a serious note nor shows brilliant weirdness. In my opinion, MS shouldn’t bring a brand named as Kumo in the market, it’ll not survive (remember CUIL?).
Bing, on a different note, sounds rather simplified. It’s not too weird and not so serious, providing an easy to remember (and type) term for an online finder. Certainly, people are arguing over the name, whether it lacks the ‘bling’ factor and definite coolness. What I think is that if Bing is not cool, it’s definitely not cold. A ‘Zing thing’ isn’t present here but not many of them survived on the web world besides Yahoo. Some folks are criticizing it for oversimplification and somewhat unexpected and uncanny nature. I just want to remind them of Google that it was not a serious or definite name for a super business model but the name didn’t hold it back from becoming what it is now. Bing may become a success, who knows? Microsoft should continue the up gradation, without thinking much about the naming convention here. A good looking and functional search engine can even fix the naming flaws, if any.