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May 28, 2009
Microsoft Live Search is Now Bing
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today drew back the curtain on the new incarnation of Live Search: Bing.
Speaking at the D7 Conference in San Diego, Ballmer launched Microsoft's new Search brand, formerly code-named "Kumo." Bing will begin rolling out in the coming days and will be fully available on 6/3.
More than just a rebranding of Live Search, Microsoft is repositioning Bing as a "decision engine," with a goal "to provide customers with intelligent search tools to help them simplify tasks and make more informed decisions," according to a Microsoft spokesperson.
Bing's "decision engine" will begin by focusing on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.
"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," Ballmer said in a statement. "When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions."
Bing includes some advancements to Live Search's core search, such as entity extraction and expansion, query intent recognition and document summarization technology. It also offers a new user experience model, which changes based on the query to offer more relevant decision-making tools.
The Bing brand will extend across other Microsoft search products. Microsoft's mapping platform, Virtual Earth, will now be branded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. Technology from Microsoft's April 2008 acquisition of Farecast is now a central part of Bing Travel. Microsoft's popular cashback program is now dubbed Bing cashback, and will be fully integrated into the Bing Shopping experience.
Microsoft has created a new site describing Bing, DiscoverBing.com, and the brand has a new Twitter account, @bing.
Earlier this week, AdAge reported that Microsoft will launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing, which will include online, TV, print and radio.
According to AdAge:
People with knowledge of the planned push said the ads won't go after Google, or Yahoo for that matter, by name. Instead, they'll focus on planting the idea that today's search engines don't work as well as consumers previously thought by asking them whether search (aka Google) really solves their problems. That, Microsoft is hoping, will give consumers a reason to consider switching search engines, which, of course, is one of Bing's biggest challenges.
The Bing situation is a lot like Ask.com's situation two years ago, and again last year. In 2007, Ask.com launched a $57 million campaign aimed at winning new searchers with quirky messaging, taking on Google and others head-on. In 2008, it spent another $22 million, but shifted gears to focus on certain niches it was already doing well in.
Those campaigns didn't help Ask.com win any market share. Will Microsoft's campaign for Bing fare any better?
Posted by Kevin Newcomb on May 28, 2009 12:00 PM
Comments
Stace Caseria May 28, 2009 2:08 PM
The presentation of what Bing will be able to do is pretty interesting and illustrates the direction that search engines may take in the coming months and years.
But...
What`s with the frequent name changing? MSN search, Live, and now Bing. How do you build brand loyalty and trust that way?
I would love to get a piece of the branding money spent on Bing! Hope it's money well spent!
We shall see shortly...
Xurxo Vidal May 28, 2009 4:28 PM
Aaron May 28, 2009 7:54 PM
I feel a little like Rockey when Bullwinkle says, "watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat," Rocky, having seen this trick fail a hundred times, says "oh Bullwinkle ..." To which Bullwinkle replies, "this time for sure!"
motwguy May 28, 2009 9:04 PM
Looks and feels like almost every other venture: quick and dirty. My prediction: it will go down in less time than Cuil did. The actual positive comments will be the MS banners online :)
1) Up front technical errors w/o room for excuse (directing users to a white page?)
2) Screen shots with Kumo on them? (see binghub.com)
3) Sponshored links in Google w/o the site functioning? (ok - you have a lot to spend, we get it...BUT decide to exercise in spending???? :))
4) Inconsistent mkting already? (spaces between "Bing" and the "tm" symbol in the online ads - did you put the logo and collateral together last night?)?
Yea! This will do it for MS. Cannot wait to see how $100m can be wasted in record time (1-2 months maybe?) in order to realize a drop in search share (who said this cannot happen - once MS blows this one too, people will never give them another chance and it will seem they will need to offer Yahoo! $70b to get them since it will be the only solution available to long-term viability for MS in the Web 2.0+ era).
Sorry MSofters! Too late to withdraw - now you are in for good!
Stamos May 28, 2009 9:58 PM
I dont think they are going to hardly touch googles market on this, I feel google has it going on as far as search and their other technologies. I myself am getting the G1 here soon am looking forward to it.
Computer Repair May 29, 2009 3:14 AM
Don't think they will even tickle Google
Benny Mitchell II May 29, 2009 6:56 AM
Nice try Microsoft...I can do better with my Google Custom Search Engine...compare results for yourself...
Administrator May 29, 2009 9:10 AM
With something like this .... lets see if MS can get some of Googles market. But this Bing seems fantastic!
programmi gratis May 29, 2009 3:20 PM
The search engine is indeed "bing". Bing is Chinese and means "disease". No idea why Microsoft had to change the name. Anyway, in China it will be a big success :)
Kim May 30, 2009 7:19 AM
Whats in a name - MSN, Live or Bing? What really matters is results delivered! If Bing delivers what MSN or Live could not, why, Google Search could prove to be history!
I suppose that any given word will have a negative connotation in some language somewhere in the world... but then the fact that its the Chinese language that has a negative meaning to Bing is unfortunate - it means one in five persons will find it negative! If it had to have a negative connotation, why didn't Microsoft choose a tiny fraction of humankind, rather than the largest chunk of it? :)
Seriously speaking, I think the hype created is definitely focusing the right thing and if Microsoft delivers, why, we'd all stand to gain!
Like Windows 7, which we have come to love after using it for about 2 weeks (read our review of Windows 7 at http://www.welloiledpc.com/windows7rc.htm), Bing appears promising!
Many a miss between the cup and the lip though...
WellOiledPC May 31, 2009 2:10 AM
What's funny is google started out as this little engine that the "in" crowd thought was cool. Now they're the big monopoly on the block. Google does not give significantly better results than most search engines. Have read several interesting reviews on Bing. People who wanted to hate it, have found it quite nice. Personally, I'm hoping they take a bigger piece of the pie. Google doesn't deserve 90% of the market.
Lee May 31, 2009 8:26 AM
To be honest, I'm bit impressed with Live Search's upgrade, but why they renamed it as 'BING' I simply don't understand.
It's simply a fine-tuned Live Search. Will they keep re-branding with every algorithm update? Seems pointless at least to me.
Well done to Microsoft on the upgrade though! Let's start BINGing (hehe something is not right) :P
Mark June 1, 2009 10:25 AM
i like the look of Microsoft's search page, always have, just not so sure about the back-end functionality
smokey June 3, 2009 11:59 PM
What next a search engine doing some new tricks?
Victo513orcd June 4, 2009 2:45 PM
Google has such MASSIVE dominant market share.... Even if bing does prove to be better, how do you convince your average web user that the results are better?? Anything is possible, but toppling google is no small feat. Even a 10% market share is no small feat!
Skull Shirt June 5, 2009 3:48 AM
I wonder if Windows Live Messenger will change into Bing Messenger.
Stephen June 11, 2009 3:16 PM
i find rewardlover.com to be a good alternative to bing. They are always adding new cashback offers offering 100% in rebates and you only need $10 to cashout. Always worth checking which sites pays the most.
cashback July 4, 2009 8:41 AM
I personally don't want Google to have the 70% of the market. Google is a nightmare for many people even though it's the favorite one, but come to think if the web would be any step behind of where it is now if Google wasn't there? No, probably it wouldn't.
Google just doesn't deserve the share it has on the market because of the lack of customer service, and horror stories of other webmasters.
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JIM BENNETT November 18, 2009 8:07 PM
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JIM BENNETT November 18, 2009 8:11 PM
There are a very few occasions when I will use bing instead of google. It looks cool and all, but sometimes bing gives me really horrible search results.
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chloe marcell February 5, 2010 4:00 PM
Kevin, what's an example of the way Bing will "enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions"?
Stace