Microsoft is toying with the idea of renaming their search engine. They went from a fairly recognizable MSN to the confusing and unspecific Windows Live Search to simply Live Search – apparently that’s just not hip sounding enough when stacked against Google and Yahoo.
Microsoft has been considering a search engine name change since August; testing three possible names has been in the works as research only – Hook, Bing and Kumo. Kumo either means “spider” in Japanese, or “cloud”, which makes sense in this age of “cloud computing”.
The Kumo.com domain has been moved from a registrar to Microsoft, and is now pointing to an internal Microsoft test site.
By choosing Kumo, Microsoft will follow Yahoo! and Google, by selecting a word that does not immediately signal what the service is about. It is easy to pronounce and remember, and helps people distinguish the search engine from the vaguely defined concept they are currently struggling with.
Microsoft failed to take over Yahoo this summer, and has been struggling as Google adds layer on layer of services which threaten to eat into their highly lucrative word editing and processing programs.
The concept of a name change is not a new one – many smaller companies have successfully rebranded in time of crisis – but many analysts warn against such a move for a business as large as Microsoft’s search product.
Whether a name change would give them the strength to compete on a new level or simply moor them deeper, remains to be seen.