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Microsoft takes control of Kumo.com domain – watch out for the Live Search rebrand

Nov 23, 2008 4:04 pm by Chris | 20 comments

A few months ago Mary Jo Foley got a tip about some new brand names that were being considered for Live Search. One of these, Kumo, jumped out at us due to the sheer scale of TLDs that had been acquired during 2008, as well as the corporate owner hiding anonymously behind the registrar. Incidentally, Kumo means “cloud” or “spider” in Japanese.

Fast forward to this week and Microsoft suddenly showed its hand. Control of the Kumo.com domain was moved from the registrar to Microsoft, and is now pointing to an internal Microsoft test site (employees only).

You can test this out at home by firing up the command prompt (type “cmd” in the Vista start box) and then type “tracert kumo.com”. You’ll see the route to the end location go through a few msn.com servers, and then suddenly you’ll notice all those asterisks, which is where Kumo.com becomes available for internal use only.

We’re guessing that the internal sites are probably similar to the user interface testing versions that had screenshots leaked last month. These are used to run various permutations of the search UI to see how they perform against a control version. See pictures of the previously leaked testing versions below.

Of course new screenshots are welcome at our usual address: tips [at] liveside dot net

While Microsoft employees have admitted publicly that there are branding issues around Live Search, we’re not quite ready to stick our heads above the parapet and say that Kumo will be the new brand name to be announced in a 2009 update.

For a start Microsoft and search branding has been a mess for a while and so who outside the company knows where they will actually end up in 6 or 12 months from now.

Then there has been separate chatter about a rebrand back to Windows Live Search, which would tie the search engine back to the other Windows Live properties and Windows as a whole. Given the $300m ad campaign – Windows, Life Without Walls – seeks to link Windows + Live + Mobile together, this could make sense. However for the conspiracy theorists out there, which includes us, this could be one way of hiding the real new brand name internally.

Perhaps more importantly, a floundering Yahoo, minus Jerry Yang, really does offer some good acquisition incentives for Microsoft. How much should you pay for a few hundred million eyeballs that you hope will turn into search volume? Yahoo shares ended trading on Friday at $9.39, 70% down on the original Microsoft bid of $31 per share.

On a random aside, the first trademark request for Kumo as a search engine was filed by a Venezuelan individual. Yet another reason why this name might not ever make it out into the public eye on a Microsoft product.

So technical issues around results, relevancy and features aside, would Kumo make a better brand name than Live Search? Does Kumo have the potential marketing strength that is needed to challenge Google? We’re not sure, but hey these Live Search branding posts definitely give us food for thought.

For some background to this post, see Kip’s Codename Rome + new search brand posts from earlier this year, or Scoble’s video interview.

Latest LiveSide posts tagged Live Search

This entry was posted in News and tagged Live Search, Search. Bookmark the permalink.

http://www.liveside.net/members/Mephiles/default.aspx Mephiles
If it means “cloud,” could that mean something to do with Azure?
http://www.liveside.net/members/VasiS/default.aspx VasiS
I’m not sure if re branding live search to a completely new name “Kumo” would help improve anything (it would confuse more people rather than bring more clarity)
http://www.liveside.net/members/cJr/default.aspx cJr
Kumo is a much better name. It is one syllable just like ‘Google’, it without Windows or Microsoft in front of the name it might just work better.
Also, there wouldn’t be any confusion if it had a logo with the typical Microsoft colours (like Office, Windows, MSN, etc). Another reason how it would stop confusion is that they would still link it to MSN and Windows Live, in the search boxes, so people will know it is a Microsoft search engine, it just won’t be as obvious which could be a good thing!
http://www.liveside.net/members/surilamin/default.aspx surilamin
Kumo is a dumb name, period. Keep the Live branding. If MS wants to see their marketshare drop, they can re-brand the live services.
People do not use a website based on the name. Just take google, yahoo, and amazon for example, they are stupid website names, yet remain the most popular sites on the internet. I
Microsoft has built up a fanbase (us) with the brand name of Live, changing it would be a disaster.
http://www.liveside.net/members/cJr/default.aspx cJr
Yes, surilamin, they have built up a fanbase, but a smaller fanbase than Google and Yahoo! No matter how good Microsoft’s web search, image search, map search, etc is, it is obvious the ‘Live’ branding. the ‘MSN’ branding or the Microsoft branding is not working.
Google, Yahoo, etc are al short and snappy names and that’s what Microsoft may well need in order for their search engine to become more popular. You said Kumo was a dumb name, but you also said Google and Yahoo were stupid names, so what are you trying to say?
Also, how much has their market share increased since it’s been branded ‘Live Search’? Not by much, I can assure you. It needs to be able to compete with Google and Yahoo. Kumo is a nice name, not the best, but short and snappy as they need it.
http://www.liveside.net/members/cJr/default.aspx cJr
On a side note, I’d love to see a nicer UI for Microsoft’s search engine (hope it’s going to be Kumo). I love the mock-up for the ‘Windows Live Search’ results and I hope they take elements of this (e.g. displaying the favicons next to the results). Obviously they cannot copy the Windows Live layout exactly if their search engine is going to be branded differently (and rightfully so)
http://msftandthefuture.spaces.live.com/ Quikboy
Kumo = blech!
I can’t believe they ‘might’ actually go forwards with that dumb name. I mean at least brand names like Google and Yahoo! kinda mean something. Google really comes from Googol, which means a cardinal number such as 1, followed by a 100 zeroes, which relates to Google and it’s amount of search results and data. Yahoo! probably was meant to have an effect of being excited about a web service, or whatever. Live Search is fine enough, we know it’s related to Microsoft’s internet branch. Kumo however, means nothing to Americans.
Can you Kumo search it? Or can you Live Search it? Personally, they both sound dumb. Live sounds better though.
The problem isn’t mostly the branding, it’s the results! I think they’re getting worse. Live nails most basics, but is inadequate in other simple queries, and isn’t so good at specific queries. There needs to be more features to assist in search, or a new layout, or new design, and so on. But gimmicks and rebranding aren’t the answer. The reason why people still Google is because it’s usually spot on, and Live offers very little over that.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Hb8/default.aspx Hb8
Creating more brand confusion can’t be good.
http://liveside.net/members/rb1385/default.aspx rb1385
Kumo is a dumb name. Microsoft just needs to figure out where they are going and then push the services. People can’t understand the services because Microsoft can’t explain them.
Stop trying to be Google. Build good software and services and you don’t have to worry about buying Yahoo or chasing Google.
It is all too confusing.
http://www.liveside.net/members/lbastie/default.aspx lbastie
Keep Live. It is a good brand. The only thing to do is to advertize correctly. Forinstance, live cashback is a great deal, a wonderful feature that has good traction. Sadly, it is not advertized.
So, really, the problem is advertizing, not name.
And live sounds cool with its integration within other services.
http://www.liveside.net/members/joiseystud/default.aspx joiseystud
I am shocked at just how bad MS is at naming things. Things need to be named so they can be easily verbified. “Just google the results!” You see how easy that is? Even without knowing Google you would know how to spell it. Lets try with MS brands “Just Live Search the results”, terrible, “Just Kumo the results” also bad. Azure is horrible too.
MS. Think of Verbification and naming that can be spelled very easily without having heard the name before and also something that is not easily mistaken for some other spelling (Kumo, Cumo, Kuhmo, Kumho….)
http://www.liveside.net/members/dw82/default.aspx dw82
Live Search needs a new name and a new look. Windows Live is still bad branding as it makes services so long winded like Windows Live Hotmail but thankfully it seems windows live is fading into the the background and not so in your face and turning into an umbrella.
People still say MSN instead of Windows Live Messenger. It was a pointless exercise making Windows Live so prominent in the names. They will always remain Hotmail, MSN Messenger etc. to people. It will be interesting to see if the masses start saying things like Photo Gallery or Windows Live when talking to people. I just don’t think it works compared to say Flickr or Google.
Kumo, I dunno. Don’t particularly like it but Live Search needs a new name. Something that rolls off the tongue and also has a unique look and feature set that puts it beyond Google. Live Search is a copy cat. That’s the other big problem. Paying people to use your search engine points to huge failure.
http://www.liveside.net/members/thaman04/default.aspx thaman04
I actually think “Kumo” would be a great name.
In my opinion, “Windows Live Search” and even “Live Search” is just not appealing, it’s too long, and it doesn’t flow nicely. “Google” for example is simply to say and it’s a nice name.
If they rebrand to “Kumo”, I’m sure it would take some of the negativitiy that Live Search hide. I really hope they change it to that :)
http://www.liveside.net/members/thaman04/default.aspx thaman04
sorry made some typos.. lol… I meant “had” instead of “hide” and “simple” instead of “simply”
http://www.networksolutions.com EbuzzMaster
Although they are number three of the big three, they are going to lose any current traction they have at this point by rebranding (again). Stick with Live, and – as has been mentioned by a couple of other posters – advertise and position the (Live) brand!
http://www.liveside.net/members/Seika/default.aspx Seika
Don’t like the intonation for “Kumo”
Try saying all Live, Google, Yahoo and Kumo.
The intonation for Kumo sounds like going down all the way from first to end.
http://www.liveside.net/members/kbhasi/default.aspx kbhasi
The route goes through the msn.com servers at hops 13 to 16, then hops 17 to 30 have been timed out.
http://www.liveside.net/members/kbhasi/default.aspx kbhasi
In the post that had those screenshots, you mentioned about something called windows live cloud. That sounds like a cloud computing thing.
http://www.liveside.net/members/kbhasi/default.aspx kbhasi
i think you can access windows live cloud @ cloud.live.com
http://www.liveside.net/members/markm913/default.aspx markm913
Has anyone gone to live.com and run a search for kumo.com. interesting results on the first line!!!