Kumo coming as early as next week
Microsoft’s new search engine, a possible long-term replacement for the struggling Live Search, could be unveiled as early as next week. The Wall Street Journal reports that Kumo will have its first public demonstration at a conference in California.
The Journal notes its source as “people familiar with the matter”. Often that would simply mean Microsoft staff, though the identity of the informant may be explained by the fact that the conference, D: All Things Digital, is being run by the Journal itself.
If the story is true, it would bring the launch earlier than expected: a previous account had the date as June 2, the Tuesday after next. It’s possible that date may be when the site goes live for public use.
Kumo’s main selling point is that it organizes results into different groups of information. Whereas Google already does this by information format (news story, blog post, image etc), Kumo produced customized categories for different subjects. The Journal gives the example of a search for the name of a car bringing up results grouped as online discussion forums, used car listings, and sites selling spare parts.
It’s also claimed that Microsoft will use advertising agency JWT to promote Kumo. JWT signed on as Microsoft’s marketers for global business products last year, and its handling Kumo would be a blow to Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the firm which has previously dealt with some Microsoft consumer marketing, the seemingly natural focus for a search engine’s promotion. The decision, if true, might reflect disappointment with the much-mocked series of ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld.
Kumo’s launch will follow figures released this week which show Microsoft is failing to make headway in the battle for search market share. During April its sites dealt with just 8.2 percent of queries, compared with 20.4 percent for Yahoo and 64.2 percent for Google.
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