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

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

markm913 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:02:38 GMT

Has anyone gone to live.com and run a search for kumo.com. interesting results on the first line!!!

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

kbhasi — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:58:26 GMT

i think you can access windows live cloud @ cloud.live.com

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

kbhasi — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:56:18 GMT

In the post that had those screenshots, you mentioned about something called windows live cloud. That sounds like a cloud computing thing.

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

kbhasi — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:26:38 GMT

The route goes through the msn.com servers at hops 13 to 16, then hops 17 to 30 have been timed out.

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

Seika — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:27:28 GMT

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.

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

EbuzzMaster — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:33:42 GMT

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!

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

thaman04 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:21:50 GMT

sorry made some typos.. lol... I meant "had" instead of "hide" and "simple" instead of "simply"

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

thaman04 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:20:42 GMT

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 :)

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

dw82 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:16:20 GMT

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.

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

joiseystud — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:49:17 GMT

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....)

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

lbastie — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:02:00 GMT

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.

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

rb1385 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:58:54 GMT

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.

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

Hb8 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:01:36 GMT

Creating more brand confusion can't be good.

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

quikboy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:03:47 GMT

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.

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

cJr — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:54:02 GMT

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)