image9In the past several months, Microsoft has been trying to revamp its search engine to counter the dominance of Google. Microsoft’s underground “secret-testing” of the new search engine, code-named “Kumo” will be introduced in the market re-named as BING!

The service will be available at www.bing.com. Microsoft is calling its new product a “decision engine,” promising to make things like buying a digital camera, booking a flight or searching for a restaurant easier by serving up results based on similar previous searches.

Marketing budget to promote Bing

Microsoft is planning to spend $80 million to $100 million on ad campaigning to promote Bing!

Gulp!!! Now, that’s a lot of money. Let’s wait to see how much buzz it will really create.

Latest Stats

  • Last month Google took 64.2 % of US Internet searches
  • Yahoo took 20.4 % of searches
  • Microsoft took 8.2 % of searches

Some new Bing features

The competition is really tough for Microsoft, especially with both Google and Yahoo recently introducing new features in their search engines to attract users.

  • Microsoft is calling its new product a “decision engine.” For example: A search on a make of car will give you clickable categories (on the left-hand sidebar) like
    • problems
    • reviews
    • dealers
  • These are the most likely places a Web user will want to go from the initial search.
  • You will be able to use the popular Farecast service in its flight booking section which predicts whether fares will rise or fall.
  • You could also get directions to locations with only one mouse click, and hover over a search results to see more information, without having to open a new link.

Microsoft hopes to universally verbify the new name Bing, like Google, which has now become the generic verb for searching the Internet for information. “I was googling all night and came up with this report.”

Determined to make it big this time, Microsoft is all set to introduce Bing with a bang to the public next Wednesday. I really can’t wait to see what lies beneath their secret covers.