Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 28 May 2009 19:41
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Steve Ballmer is set to shortly announce “Bing”, its new Google-killing
search engine with such amazing search simplicity and satisfaction that
we will all be truly stunned. But will Bing just bring useless search
bling, or will it be the real search thing – and does the Bing logo
look just like that from British Paints?!?
Microsoft’s rumoured new search engine, Bing, is due to be announced by Steve Ballmer at the D: All Things Digital conference sometime later today, where Ballmer will "Bing it on" bigtime.
Reported to be based on the “Kumo” search technology that Microsoft has been working on, which seems to simply categorise results in a more useful manner than Google, Bing is a Microsoft initiative that really needs to sing right from the word go.
Already the world has seen the disappointment of Cuil, and the shrinking share of users that both Yahoo and Microsoft has suffered.
Wolfram Alpha has given the world hope that some innovative new search technology to augment what we already get from Google is both here and in development, but at the same time, Google has responded by offering its own search improvements to move down the same track.
Unless Kumo, or Bing, or whatever it ends up being called, is really fantastic, what’s to stop Google from simply adding the best elements of whatever Microsoft has developed, and then delivering the same categorised results?
Google, after all, is supposed to have the best search brains in the business, so if Microsoft can think it up, Google could easily make its own version, if Bing truly ends up being a massive threat that consumers are hugely tempted by.
After all, that’s what Microsoft is supposed to have been doing – didn’t Apple say something about “Redmond, start your photocopiers”?
What the heck is this Bing thing, anyway? Are we all supposed to now “Bing” things, instead of Googling them, or searching for them?
If I get a useless set of search results is that a bad Bing? Maybe I’ve had a bingle – you know, an accident. Or a bingle bangle bungle. If Bing doesn’t work, can I bang Bing?
Will I ever be able to Bing on my Zune? Or Bing for the best price on an iPhone instead? The Zune HD has a "marketplace" so could have software, games, a phone, a browser and a Bing client. But I'm boinging off onto a tangent here.
“Bing” is supposed to be the sound that happens when something completes, like a backup, or new email, or your microwave, or your phone that always bings, or a binging sound that you can’t binging well find out how to turn off on your gadget or gizmo!! :-)
I wonder what the Bing Lee company thinks of it all? Or Chandler Bing, who proclaimed to have a horrible name, or Bing Crosby? Or the company called Bing! somewhere in QLD?
But that’s not all… Bing already has some unusual connotations, (don’t companies check these things?!?), plus, could Microsoft have been inspired by the British Paints logo? "Sure can", it seems...
See for yourself on page 2 and you be the judge on just how much of a sting Bing could bring!
