On Thursday, Microsoft unveiled Bing, which we all knew was coming and was the new name for its long-rumored Kumo search engine revamp. Moreover, it's not just a search engine. Nope, it's a decision engine, and Microsoft also states that Bing is a new brand, as well.
To me, Bing either brings to mind Chandler Bing from Friends, or cherries. It will go live worldwide on June 3, with some Live Search users getting results from Bing on June 1st.
To be honest, nothing Bing announces is a game-changer that would result in a user saying "Eureka, I couldn't do that on Yahoo! or Google." However, Microsoft has integrated technology from Powerset (a natural language search technology company Microsoft acquired in July of 2008) to display related search results down the left side of the page.
The user interface has been changed quite a bit as well. But it's the focus on marketing Bing as a decision making tool that is the real difference. Not just a search engine, but something that will help you in your life. Here's what the press release says;
Microsoft is committed to building better tools to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision. Bing is an important first step toward this long-term vision and a strong indicator of Microsoft’s commitment to move search technology forward for customers.
Microsoft also managed to snag the domain decisionengine.com and here's what they said there:
We took a new approach to go beyond search to build what we call a decision engine. With a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of a world class search service, Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.
As par of using Bing as a brand, Microsoft added the following:
The new brand portfolio will include the following changes to existing Microsoft programs:
- Microsoft’s mapping platform, Virtual Earth, will now be branded as Bing Maps for Enterprise. More information can be found here.
- Technology from Microsoft’s April 2008 acquisition of Farecast is now a central part of Bing Travel. More information coming soon.
- Microsoft’s popular cashback program, now dubbed Bing cashback, with more than 850 merchants and more than 17 million products available, will be fully integrated into the Bing Shopping experience.
Bing cashback? Ugh. Bing has a Facebook page and you can follow Bing on Twitter.
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