Within the next few days, Microsoft is expected to unveil its latest attempt at trying to be a player in the world of web search. After it has failed to get live.com any traction against Google, it will apparently launch a new engine called “Bing” — the project formerly known by its working title “Kumo.” This should be unveiled at the D conference which starts today in Carlsbad, CA — but it looks like Microsoft may be giving us a peak at the logo a tad early.
While it appears that Microsoft may have already taken it down, I visited bing.com in my browser about 10 minutes ago and sure enough saw the favicon you see above. It’s a lowercase “b” with a yellow/orange dot in the middle. It would appear that this will be at least a part of the Bing logo. The light blue and yellow/orange color combination matches that of Kumo. I find that combination to be quite ugly — sort of like the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball uniforms (below) from the 1990s — but hey, that’s just personal taste. All that really matters is now the search engine actually performs.
This favicon, which again, may only be a part of the logo, also looks a lot like the logo for Blinkx, the video search engine. That features a red lowercase “b” with an eye in the middle. See them side-by-side below.
Microsoft is spending some $80 to $100 million on a marketing campaign for Bing, according to Ad Age. That’s huge by any standard, but especially when you consider that Google only spent $25 million on all of its marketing last year. I don’t know what Microsoft plans to spend all that money on, but I get the sneaking suspicion that Bing Crosby will be involved in some way or another.
[thanks DD]
With live.com’s cashback offering you could get up to 30% off eBay items for a while. With that powerful motivator they still couldn’t get their search engine to flourish. I don’t think a $100 million dollars of advertising will affect much.
How many other people thought “Bling” when you read “Bing”?
I thought of Chandler.
Well – Now we finally know what Chandler’s job actually was.
Anything is better than “live” search. Live is so common name, definitely doesnt make for a brand. Ray Ozzie failed just because of domain live.com.
Why does search need to be a “brand”? Microsoft is already a brand, all their search tools need to do is find stuff, and find it well.
I thought it was from the early airplane movie where the guys says something like “I have no idea what it does but it goes BING”
oops — Monty Python
http://www.yout...h?v=arCITMfxvEc
Hahahaha. Please let them have a button that makes a “Bing” sound
Unfortunately that would depend on Microsoft having some sort of self awareness, and a sense of humour
Ask.com spent $100 million for advertisment two years in a row and only saw a 1% bump in market share that has disappeared since then.
They can make the name boogle or bingle so it sounds like the other search engine, but not really.
Biggest problem with “bing” – it cant really be used as a verb as “Google” can
How many people do you here use “Oh just let me Google it”
I just cant see my friends going “Oh just let me *Bing* it”
My 2 cents
Why can “Google” be a verb and not “Bing”? There is no logical basis in that assumption except for the fact that we are all used to “Google” being a verb.
Ten years ago, I bet people said the exact same thing – “I just can’t see my friends going, ‘Oh just let me *Google* it’ “
You’re making that assuming that after the fact.
“I need you to Xerox this.”
“Do you have a Kleenex?”
If a brand gets established, it will sound natural to you unless the name is terrible.
Even ‘Shamwow’ with the word ‘Sham’ right in the brand picked up steam.
They’re just doing what they did with Vista. Change the name, get everyone to try it and record the people that don’t hate it.
Woowwwwwwoowwoww… Wooohoooo… I am excited…. This *is* news…. Favicon!? Yea, favicon…..
lol seriously what a big difference too
Re: logo. It seems very speculative at this point. Google’s logo is not a beauty either.
About Ad budget, it’d be good to compare with Ask.com who was running a lot of TV ads. That’d be a better comparable than Google.
blah, give up already, microsoft!
I think it interesting that they are using a name that has no relation to Microsoft. Apparently even they realize the stigma that comes with labeling a product with the Microsoft name.
I’m not sure that Microsoft has a bad name with the majority of the world’s population.
I kinda like the name Bing. If it sends you to a search result, it should say something like ‘Bin-go’. Or something.
I keep thinking of this (NOT SAFE FOR WORK):
you.. will.. like.. our ….. searchessss
ha. exactly. if MSFT were ballsy enough to make that video, I just may use that engine.
Promoting bingo should be something like this http://www.bing...login/login.asp an online portal created by an Indian company for a snack product with the same name….lol
I was thinking of a reference to the bing cherry farming industry of the Pacific Northwest.
Maybe they can get these guys to do the new advertising video?
http://www.yout...h?v=GdDxz2bkfhE
This is going to be a massive fail (Like all the stuff from MS)! With a sucking logo like that how are they going to impress people?
“This is going to be a massive fail (Like all the stuff from MS)!”
Yeah! just like their 90% marketshare of desktops, 90% marketshare of office productivity software. What a bunch of failures. MS obviously doesn’t know how to win.
You can attribute their 90% Market share to the fact that Bill Gates introduced the EULA and it is like a massive gang rape of computer users rights! And many other greedy software folks followed suit to make a few bucks… But MS made most of the $$$… And we all know that Windows was a Mac Rip-off FAIL and we had no choice to use anything else as the MS Dickheads made OEM agreements so that every fucking computer was sold with Windows on it!
I am not a apple fan boy!
MS is a massive fail!
They just have got the knack of cheating people over and over again!
Why do you even post comments? It’s always the exact same garbage on every Microsoft post. “Microsoft FAIL …blah blah blah…Macs are great …blah blah blah.”
S.S.D.D.
You sound like a broken record my friend, a broken record without any evidence to back up your ramblings.
> “Microsoft FAIL …blah blah blah…Macs are great …blah blah blah.”
Seriously dude… Your memory seems to be vapourware,
true, I love to trash Microsoft (for a good reason which I prefer not to say) but I never said that Macs are great…
Okay if it makes you happy I say “Macs are Great!” to substantiate your statement…
BTW There is tons of evidence…
Windows is a rip off of Mac? Not even. Win95 is years ahead of anything else at the time. Win95 changed computers like nothing else.
Apple (Jobs really) ripped all the “innovations” of the Mac from PARC. Jobs is the biggest con artist in the industry.
Heard of win 3.1 or the earlier version of it, thats code stolen from apple and rewritten. Yeah win95 has turned computers into expensive calculators and bluescreens. And Steve just got inspired by xerox parc:)
It’s a known fact that Jobs and Gates both stole their ideas and “innovations” from Al Gore.
Nice try.
Ahhh yes, touché.
Are you really as clueless as you sound? Even if you put aside Windows b/c you claim it was successful only because of sneaky dealings you seem to forget….
Exchange – a billion dollars business
Windows Server – multi-billion dollar business
SQL Server – multi-billion dollar business
SharePoint – a billion dollar business
The list goes on. If that’s failure, I want some of it.
Vista – multi-billion dollar failure…
Yeah, because clearly the most important thing for the average user is a sexy favicon. Don’t be dense. Google’s favicon is hideous as well. No one cares what the favicon really looks like as long as it stands out.
it was logo and not favicon…
How has anyone possibly have seen the logo yet? It hasn’t even been launched to the public yet.
Show me one image on the Internet of the Bing logo besides the favicon.
bing that
Ned!……. Ned Ryerson!
Bing!
fail
Old Scottish joke: What’s the difference between Bing Crosby and Walt Disney?
Bing sings but Walt disnae.
Rod – shouldn’t that be “does neigh”?
Another Scottish favourite: “Is that a pie in the window or a meringue?”
Oh…and Bing: Might as well call it Flop.com.
I didn’t get that, but I laughed.
My 2yo son already has a Bing in his life:
http://www.worm...pages/bebbt.htm
How will we ever tell them apart?
A favicon “leak”? This is going to get you your Pulitzer for investigative reporting in breaking a major story?
funny stuff
. the hole just gets deeper by the day. here comes the “mybing” bookmark? all those self professed brilliant minds and this is the best they could come up with? how do you spell it? being, bean, beam, be in. i like bein.com better, kinda like linkedin.com. it is very amusing to watch a behemoth like micro running around like a chicken with its head cut off in search of a search future. at this pace they would have been better off just buying twitter. an acquisition of the premium natural language landscape and consumer facing talent is the only thing that can save them. the in-house talent sucks.
LanguageLocator.com – be natural
Actually, I don’t agree with your opinion. Bing as a name actually has quite a few things going for it if you seriously think about it:
1. It’s short – which also means a shorter domain name (more useful than you think)
2. It’s super easy to remember and spell
3. It’s easy to pronounce, particularly in non-English speaking countries (many folks are seriously overlooking this aspect in a brand name, particularly for a product with an intended global reach)
4. It only has a single syllable
If folks have enough sense to spell “Google” correctly without mistakenly spelling it as “Googal” or “Gugol” or “Googol”, I don’t think they will have a problem spelling “Bing”.
How will it be until Microsoft will fuse Bing into the Window 7 rc?
Would they call it Wing?
Actually, blue and orange are complimentary colors.
I still don’t even understand why microsoft is even getting into the search business.Arent they a software maker? Why do they have their hand in everything: OS, gaming, mobile phones, mp3, peripherals, and the list goes on and on. WTF?
Francizco said…
Arent they a software maker? Why do they have their hand in everything: OS, gaming, mobile phones, mp3, peripherals, and the list goes on and on. WTF?
It is called insurance. You have to diversify your business (or suite of products, etc,…) rather than relying on one area because if the market becomes obsolete or overtaken in that specific area, then you’re doom. The other reason is the potential for growth. The more varieties you have the more likely that you’re going to succeed in high-growth. I have come across a Bill Gates interview where he highlighted that issue.
Why is Google doing the same, or IBM or Oracle ? As Bill Gates already stated.
I still don’t even understand why Google is even getting into the application software business. Aren’t they a search company? Why do they have their hand in everything: search, application software, mobile phones, portal, web browsers, and the list goes on and on. WTF?
I still don’t even understand why Amazon is even getting into the cloud computing business. Aren’t they a bookseller? Why do they have their hand in everything: books, mp3, cloud infrastructure, mobile device software, and the list goes on and on. WTF?
Hey! This is pretty easy!
I don’t like that logo…at all
Mr. A) Hey, our Live.com, the 4 letter top-notch-general-word-for-describing-a-service failed for some reason.
Mr. B) Our technology is quite good, perhaps Live.com is simply not brandable enough.
Mr. A) Exactly. Let’s launch something that is more brandable, generic and marketable than Live.com . A new name that will be the face and spearhead of Microsoft’s R&D efforts.
Mr. B) Howy about BING ?
What the fuck.
problem they never owned: LiveSearch.com , dude that owns it was offered 200G and did not take it.
could have purchased LiveLocator.com for 150g and the rest would be history. now they are stuck with Bada – Bing.com. betcha in 1 year they’ll realize it was the greatest mistake they could ever make.
CapitalDomain.com – appreciation matters
Just Fuc*ing Bing It .. At least it sounds better then Kumo.
But it also sounds like bong, We’ll see the results & structure and we’ll see who will lough in the end, G or B
I can’t wait to try it.
I like Kumo better.
Hello I am the cousin of wealthy Bin. I am not happy someone take my name.
/Bing Laden
Bing reminds me of http://www.blingo.com/
Sadly, microsoft just don’t get it. They should have listened to me, when I was saying that they should have bought cnet.com for the domain search.com Then they should have invested in the server technology required to build a better search engine and employed their brilliant tech minds into actually developing a better search product, and not have launched it, until the beta testing proved it was a better product than google. But alas, it seems their marketing people are running the show, and they think they can gain market share through marketing, without having a better product than google. Even they seem to be failing, what kind of a stupid name is bing?
There’s a certain erotic quality to the logo, but maybe I’m just starring at it too longly
ok here’s my completely unrequested addition to the torrent, first off I am a self confessed mac fan, but use both mac and xp at work, ironically I had xp on a compaq box but virtualization on a mac it works a treat and is a great functional os, osx is merely more consumer focused. in relation to the search argument, this game is over yahoo’s head long move into acquisition mode for a social network platform has to be seen as a concession of defeat to google.
So if a superior competitor has already admitted defeat to another even bigger player why on earth would anyone invest in this market unless they have a truly game changing product.
I can remember seeing an interview with ballmer mocking iphone before it’s launch, and yet now we hear of the pink project and the windows mobile app store.
yes apple looted xerox and microsoft looted apple but times they are a changing, new zealand governement have just dumped ms, marketing spin merely supports or hides innovation or a lack thereof.
on a positive note ms office will always beat the crap out of open office and iwork, well until all three are irrelevant apps anyway.
sdg
i love logos
I remember people saying that Hulu was going to be a giant fail. I think that the logo and the ad budget wont really matter. It is going to be all about the product experience.
TechCrunch: breaking all of the world’s most important favicon stories since 2009.
+1
+1 hehehe!
Nobody here has read Infinite Jest ?
“Bing” is slang for cocaine.
http://www.wire.../#comment-29497
Anybody notice that http://www.bing.com gives a blank page now?
Hmm, hmm.
In chinese, bing could mean illness/sickness (病).
Actually, I think it’s phonetically closer to the character for ice (氷)…
I am not sure what all the negative comments are for. Nothing wrong with trying to improve things.
It is other companies trying new things that keeps Google improving so that’s good for all users.
Live Search was a name that was never going to work and Bing is a lot easier on the tongue. Microsoft don’t expect that Bing will completely displace Google overnight. It is a gradual process and there is more to come from Microsoft in the search space.
In regard to Windows Vista comments – yeah there were too many problems. Windows 7 is coming out soon and it will kick ass!
Microsoft may need more than a better search engine and a $100 ad campaign; we recently did a usability study and found that 100% people were able to find the correct answer using WolframAlpha compared to 37% using Google. But 100% of people would recommend Google to a friend whilst only 77% would recommend WolframAlpha:
http://bunnyfoo...-but-not-brand/
Your blog post said it best:
“The study is by no means comprehensive; it is based on a single search query and one that favours WolframAlpha’s approach to knowledge management/search”
There are certain queries that Wolfram|Alpha just cannot compute at this time that traditional search engines like Google/Bing can process with ease.
My guess is that the people recommending Google are recommending it as a generic everyday-use search engine which obviously Wolfram|Alpha is not at this point.
This is the Last Chance Saloon for Microsoft to become a big player in the Search Sector.
So far the name doesnt grab you, but at least it sounds better than the terrible Cuiil.
The success or failure of Bing will of course come down to its relevance and userbility.
If it truly delivers for both Users and Advertisers then maybe Microsoft will have no need to do a deal with Yahoo Search.
Unless of course Yahoo Search is part of this new Bing Branding.
Microsoft has been successful with offering a platform on for developers to build on, they should offer an API of the Bing search.
One of the reasons of the popularity of Twitter is their API.
Every developer will put marketing efforts into promoting its’ solution, but at the same time promotes the platform.
I thought I can use that in my blog !
Live Search has had a pretty comprehensive API for a few years already. Supports JSON, SOAP, and REST-based XML, and provides means for you to monetize your application using the search API.
http://dev.live...com/livesearch/
I’m pretty sure that will be carried over to Bing as well.
The current search war is over, and yes, Google won, big time!
Microsoct with Bing or whatever should focus on next generation search which will be done on different platforms, with different UI, where social is mandatory and so on. Take a look at John Dvorak PC Mag from yesterday–But It’s Nearly Google
Microsoft’s unfortunate copycat strategies will not result in anything other than a weak copy of Google, with some visual tweaks to make the presentation look better. Redmond will never take a chance on something radical. My advice to the company is to try to understand what’s going on at Collarity, where it’s easy to see what a new idea for search is all about. I’m actually kind of surprised that one of the big three hasn’t already made Collarity’s developers an offer they could not refuse.
http://www.pcma...,2347651,00.asp
Reminds me of the YayMicro log. A lot..
http://www.yaymicro.com
“You put a gun to his head, and “bada-bing”, his brains will be all over your ivy league suit. That’s pretty much how Micro$oft operates.
Found this on twitter:
Just discovered – Microsoft bing stole our logo.. MS: http://bit.ly/1aoCl0 and our: http://yaymicro.com #bing
Way to go MS!
“You put a gun to his head, and “bada-bing”, his brains will be all over your ivy league suit.” That’s pretty much how Micro$oft operates. (quote from “The Godfather.”)
If search was brand-driven rather than results driven, Google would never had a chance. Google as a name functions but it by no means carries the service. People only know it and what it refers to because the search service worked.
And my-oh-my that logo would suck. Hard. Like, whoa.
does anyone know how to if bing is going public… or if they already are?? If so, what is their symbol, I am interested in learning more about the site.
Looks like they’re copying Google’s move. Bada Bing!
First it was MSN, then Live, now Bing. What’s next is what I want to know and also why they’re own add url link doesn’t even come up in their own search.