New York — After draining out billions of dollars to defeat Google at its own game, Microsoft, seeking to develop “better and more useful” search lately revealed that they are soon going to conduct an internal testing of its long-anticipated update to its Live Search product called Kumo.com, a spokesman for the software company said on Monday.
Ultimately, Microsoft’s embracing of Kumo is designed to be both a rebranding and renaming the service now called Windows Live Search, however, at this stage Microsoft is describing it as “an internal test environment,” and has commenced experiment on a new search design with Microsoft employees, according to an executive briefed on the changes.
“Kumo is the name of an internal test environment we are launching to a small sampling of employees…this week,” a Microsoft representative said in a statement. Kumo had been long rumored to be a possible name for the Live Search rebranding.
The service, so far confined to the company employees, but may eventually form part of Microsoft’s attempt to catch up with Internet search leaders Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
The Redmond, Washington-based company is long since striving to catch up with runaway Internet search leader Google, which is beginning to encroach on Microsoft’s core software business.
The new service was announced in an internal memo sent by the head of research at the company’s online services division on Monday. However, it did not gave much detail about the new features.
On Monday, Satya Nadella, a Microsoft senior vice president who manages the engineering for its online operation, sent a memo to all employees, asking them to try out the new service. He wrote that Microsoft is going to test various features, but they are meant to offer various ways to make it easier for people to accomplish whatever goals brought them to the search engine:
We are confident that we can deliver a much better and more effective search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you will see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you carry out your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions.
“The memo was first became public on The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital blog.”
Word that Microsoft is on the heels of experimenting with the new search tool began with a Twitter posting by Powerset co-founder Barney Pell, who now serves as a “search strategist and evangelist” for Microsoft. In the posting, reported by enthusiast site LiveSide, Pell did not quoted the Kumo name, but said that the site was getting an updated user interface and new brand.
“Barney was referring to our internal testing environments,” the Microsoft representative said, adding that the company had nothing to announce today. “We are not in a position to confirm what will come to the market or when.” Microsoft acquired Pell’s Powerset in July.
Sources claim that it can prove to be a new brand for the company’s search engine technology.
Kumo is separate from another search tool being offered to employees by Microsoft Research. That tool, displayed last week at TechFest and referred to as Viveri, uses the Live Search engine in combination with new visualization and vertical search technologies.
“They are different but they are complementary,” the Microsoft representative said.
Meanwhile, Search Engine Land also noted a couple of changes on the public Live Search site, including “best match” and “categorized listings” options.
“We regularly test or ‘flight’ new features for a small subset of searchers,” Microsoft said. “The purpose of these flights is to gauge customer response and collect data, which may or may not lead to eventual integration into the larger service.”
Microsoft’s own research shows that Windows Live Search has almost no following among the public. Nevertheless, it now remains to be seen if the Kumo update would change the fortunes of Microsoft in the search engine market. And if it succeeds, then that should mean there is nowhere to go but up.