Microsoft today announced the rebranding of and update to the Live Search search engine. The update has been in testing under the name codename Kumo since late last year. Live Search was given the new name Bing, in a post on Live Search blog Microsoft explains why Bing was chosen:
We needed a brand that was as fresh and new as our approach. It needed to be like the product — optimized for the Internet. A name that was memorable, short, easy to spell, and that would function well as a URL around the world. We like Bing because it sounds off in our heads when we think about that moment of discovery and decision making — when you resolve those important tasks. And frankly, the name needed to clearly communicate that this is something new, to invite you to come back, to re-introduce you to our new and improved service and encourage you to give it a try.
As part of the rebranding is touting Bing as a “decision engine” as opposed to a search engine. Saying that Bing begins to move past experience of using a search engine to “a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions.” Microsoft says that it is four areas of focus for making better decisions will be “making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.”
The update introduces new features to the search results page interface. On left side of the page a pane will show options to refine searches, including switching between different types of searches and related searches. To try to help users find quickly find result their looking for there is Best Match where the best answer is “surfaced and called out”, Quick Preview which is an overlay “that expands over a search result caption to provide a better sense of the related site’s relevancy”, and Instant Answers that is “designed to provide the sought-after information within the body of the search results page”
According to Microsoft, Bing “will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.”
Microsoft will also be launching advertising campaign, reported to be around 100 million dollars, to promote the rebranding. Despite Microsoft’s lofty talk about the update and the advertising campaign, Microsoft does not expect much change in its share of searches any time soon. Steve Ballmer told the New York Times that he hoped that “over the next year we’ll see small results. Big as a percentage of our share, and small as a percentage maybe of Google’s share.” Microsoft search boss Satya Nadella told CNET that if Microsoft share “were to go from 9 percent share to 11 percent by next year, he would consider that a success.” For some time Microsoft’s share has fluctuated significantly, with it share being as high 14.1 percent and as low as 9.1 in the last year according to Nielsen Online.
The Bing rebranding will also occur for a number of related services, including the mapping service Virtual Earth being renamed Bing Maps for Enterprise. There will also be unspecified improvements to Live Search Webmaster Center as part of the rebranding. according to a post on the Live Search Webmaster Center Blog.