Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the company’s new Google search competitor and its new name — Bing — Thursday at the D: All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, Calif.
However, despite a glitzy demo, and the rebranding, it remains to be seen whether Bing will go “ka-ching” for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and whether both the name and the technology resonate with users. The company’s search engine to date has been called Live Search, while Bing, the new search engine, was previously codenamed Kumo.
That all changes on June 3, when Bing.com goes live around the world and the Live Search brand goes away.
Rumors that Microsoft was ready to take the wraps off its rejiggered search strategy have been swirling in the blogosphere for weeks. That was when most observers still expected the codename Kumo, which means “cloud” or “spider” in Japanese, would be the final name.
“We needed a name that says this is all about search,” Ballmer said during an onstage question-and-answer session at the D conference. “We need to build brand equity in addition to technology equity.”
Ballmer also assured the audience that reported ownership problems with the name — Bing — have successfully been dealt with.
Names aside, however, the big question is will it work?
“The proof’s in the pudding. If the buzz got out that Microsoft had a good search experience, who knows, they could be contenders,” Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies, told InternetNews.com.
Taking Bing for a ride
That’s a race that’s a little hard to call so far, though. The only people with any real long-term experience with Bing thus far have been Microsoft employees — who have been testing Bing internally for several months — and a handful of technology analysts.
Two analysts who had the opportunity to at least kick the tires on Bing before the launch both said they were favorably impressed with their own initial tests.
“Microsoft is finally giving its search [technology] a chance to succeed,” Matt Rosoff, research vice president for consumer products and services at Directions on Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. He’s been testing Bing for about a month.
“[Live Search] results were not as accurate as Google’s but [with Bing] I’ve been able to find what I’m looking for on the first search,” Rosoff added.
Sue Feldman, vice president of search and discovery technologies at IDC, had a similar experience. “Pretty much every one of the top 10 to 20 results were very relevant,” she told InternetNews.com.
Microsoft executives have, for a couple of years, highlighted shortcomings in existing search engines, citing analysis that as many as 30 percent of searches are abandoned because they do not find what users are looking for.
Next page: Decision engine targets key areas
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Decision engine targets key areas
Bing is based around what Microsoft refers to as a “decision engine.” The company is going to start out with what executives hope are key areas where they can add value over other search engines. For example, initial versions of Bing will focus on four key areas of search — shopping, travel, local companies, and health.
Within those areas, the idea is to provide an organized “experience” where all the information that a user would need — say, for planning a trip — is available in one place. Other features meant to enhance the experience include a “quick preview” function that lets a user hover over a link to provide a caption of what’s at the link, as well as an “instant answer” capability that aims to provide all the needed information on a single results page.
“I like having flights and hotels and maps all in one place,” Feldman said, who travels a lot for work.
As part of the rollout Microsoft said it will rebrand other technologies and services to fit the new Bing moniker. For example, Microsoft has renamed its mapping platform — already well known as Microsoft Virtual Earth — to Bing Maps for Enterprise. Microsoft also announced that its Live Search cashback shopping rebate program will be renamed Bing cashback.
According to a recent report in AdvertisingAge, Microsoft is launching an $80 million to $100 ad blitz to support introduction of the new branding and enhanced search engine.
“They’re going to throw a lot of money at this,” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT told InternetNews.com. That may not be enough to challenge Google, (NASDAQ: GOOG) however. Also, Microsoft has a lot of its own inertia in the search marketplace that it has to overcome first.
“When most people think of search, Google is the first company that comes to mind,” King said. “Google has become the status quo.”
Bing includes technologies from existing Microsoft products such as its Virtual Earth mapping product, as well as recent acquisitions, including Powerset and Farecast. For instance, much of the travel information will be provided by Farecast , a startup the company purchased in 2008, now renamed Bing travel, which provides flight and hotel information. Also purchased in 2008, Powerset specialized in semantic language processing.
Meanwhile, Google appeared philosophical regarding Microsoft’s Bing assault.
“We welcome competition that helps deliver useful information to users and expands user choice. Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space — it makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that,” a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com.
