• The New York Post, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 12:30 PM

Microsoft is expected to unveil a revamped version of its search engine at the D: All Things Digital conference in San Diego this week. The new search engine had been codenamed "Kumo," but according to The New York Post, it has been given the new name, "Bing". Company execs will conduct a demonstration at the D Conference, with the intention of building buzz prior to Bing's official launch in June, which will be backed by a major advertising campaign.

The Post points out that while Bing may be able to equal Google's search results on merit, overcoming the category leader's powerful brand is an entirely different story. Bing presumably refers to the light that goes off in your head the minute a good idea hits or when something difficult to understand makes sense, which makes it just a tad ironic that company insiders have refused to rule out the possibility of a last-minute name change. Just in case, Microsoft has trademarked a number of other names, including Hook and Sift. "It's a marketing problem, really," notes Kevin Lee, chairman of search marketing firm Did-It. "Google is synonymous with search."

Ad agency JWT is creating the ad campaign after Microsoft eschewed long-time ad partner McCann Erickson. According to the Post, there is speculation that JWT is building a similar campaign to Apple's Mac vs. PC ads to tackle the problem.

Read the whole story at The New York Post »