New Microsoft search tool Kumo coming on June 2nd
Microsoft’s new search service, known as Kumo, looks set to get a public unveiling on June 2. It could eventually replace the struggling Windows Live search engine.
The date for the unveiling comes from a poster at the Neowin forum who reports being in a Microsoft Campus building in Redmond, Washington and seeing a TV screen with a countdown to Kumo’s launch.
The countdown was set to expire on June 2, which happens to be the opening date of Search Marketing Expo, an industry conference held in Seattle. Qi Lu, the head of online services for Microsoft, is scheduled to give the keynote address at the industry, his first major speech since taking over the post.
It’s possible that Lu may simply make the first official public announcement of Kumo, though that would be a disappointment given the system is already known. Given the countdown, a public demonstration seems most likely.
Leaked internal memos have revealed Kumo is already being tested by Microsoft staff. The concept behind it appears to be that results are listed with a toolbar making it easier to refine results into different categories. Unlike the options on Google (images, video, news etc), these categories appear to be customized to the particular search term, for example a search for a singer producing categories such as lyrics, songs and bios.
It’s not known in Kumo will be intended as a separate search tool, or if it will eventually become Microsoft’s main search engine, replacing Live Search. The firm has already acquired the Kumo.com domain name, suggesting that’s at the least a serious possibility for the tool’s name upon launch.
The word is Japanese for spider, which would seem to make sense for a Web-crawling service. There had been some confusion as another Japanese word with the same spelling but a different pronunciation means cloud, itself an industry buzzword these days.
Related Posts:
April 28th, 2009
Windows Live wanted your first born. And all you ever thought about doing on the web.
Thank goodness that many people had the sense to read their TOS. Talk about a horror novel….
We’ll see about this confusing Japanese name. The one that doesn’t translate very well.
Does Microsoft really have staff wearing green plastic eyeshades, sitting in semi darkened rooms, thinking up silly names for their products?
May 5th, 2009
Thats great that microsoft is improving its search engine. Does Microsoft own the OfficeKumo.com domain?