Microsoft Testing Kumo Search Engine
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Microsoft, Kumo, Search, Engine
Yesterday Microsoft confirmed that it is indeed testing a new Internet search engine called Kumo, hoping to topple Google mammoth and once again rule the world.
There's no question that Microsoft aims to dominate every aspect of the multimedia industry, whether it's multimedia players, internet browsers or gaming consoles. However, the company's latest effort to rule the world comes in the form of a search engine now undergoing private testing by Microsoft workers. If successful, the upcoming Kumo.com could pose a threat for Google and perhaps even Yahoo.
So what will make this search engine so special? According to the AFP, the engine is supposedly based on semantic technology that enables it to understand sentences and relationships between words. Of course, it's nothing close to HAL or C-3PO, however current search engines take a different, primitive approach, matching words typed into search fields with those listed on website META tags as well as data found on the Internet.
While speculation brews on whether Microsoft will replace Live Search with the newfound Kumo brand, some have questioned as to why Mircosoft is keeping the new search engine under wraps. Will it too unveil super secret military bases like the Google Earth application? Probably not, but Live Search manager Mike Nichols says that there's nothing fishy going on with Microsoft's secretive nature.
"There have been lots of questions about why we’re not opening this test to the public," he reports in this blog that also includes a Kumo screenshot. "This sort of internal testing is actually fairly commonplace at Microsoft and something we do with many of our products before we decide to release things publicly. Our hope is that our employees will give us great feedback on our new features and that it all becomes part of the external experience soon."
He goes on to explain the Kumo name and website url, saying that it's merely for the benefit of the employees testing the search engine, and believes that the Kumo name will encourage more active feedback. But does this mean Live Search is due for a rebranding? That question remains up in the air, as its something Microsoft is still considering. The Kumo brand would certainly set itself apart from the overall Microsoft "live" theme, but then again, millions of Internet surfers are all too familiar with the Live brand.
Earlier this week, a leaked memo from Microsoft senior vice president Satya Nadella ricochet across the internet, highlighting the fact that current search engines take too long to generate results. The memo, apparently, was geared towards the employees embarking in a Kumo test drive. "In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40 percent of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46 percent of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes," he said. "These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don’t find what they need from search today."
He also stated that Microsoft (Kumo) will provide a better and more useful search experience that helps the user not just search, but actually accomplish tasks. "During the test, features will vary by country, but you’ll see results organized in a way that saves you more time," he added in the memo. "An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions."
Is Kumo the evolution of prior search engines? Or will it crash and burn in a red ring of death like the Xbox 360 console? Surprisingly enough, given its efforts to launch Kumo, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer still wants to make a deal with Yahoo. But rather incorporating Yahoo's search engine technology into the current Kuma engine, it's more than likely Microsoft is after Yahoo's 21 percent of the market instead.
After all, Microsoft is out to rule the world.
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ahh M$, gotta give these boys credit, they keep pushing.
""But rather incorporating Yahoo's search engine technology into the current Kuma engine, it's more than likely Microsoft is after Yahoo's 21 percent of the market instead.""
Indeed
With the level of Journalism in this article, I have to ask, is Tom's hiring?
Is this guy retarded? Since when did the 360 fail? It's doing better than the PS3 and holding it's ground against the wii......
Wii, 47 Million consoles sold. XBox360, 28 million consoles sold. PS3, 20 million consoles sold.
I think Wii pretty much winds by a landslide in sales figures. I wonder if they will get more people using their search engine because of the new name. The reason why google is so popular is because its searches usually bring back the right links. Live searches usually bring up links that you wonder how they got there.
@the Wii comments:
Last time around, the Gamecube had lower sales figures than both its competitors, but still was considered successful by Nintendo, and turned a solid profit. Now, the Wii that's in first place is nothing more than a re-worked Gamecube with superior controller tech.
The lesson learned, is that 3rd place in the console wars, doesn't mean failure. It just means the company is getting a slightly smaller piece of the huge multi-billion dollar pie. I wouldn't call the 360 or even the PS3 a failure... especially since the PS3 helped Blu-ray win the format war.
As far as Kumo goes... we'll see if it works when its released to the public. Marketing department razzle dazzle means nothing to me.
Bad name again, OMG! You can say "google for x", but in the case of Kumo.com, how would you say "... for x"?
Horrible, horrible writing.
The Anti-Microsoft attitude in this article is appalling. Would you rather we all were using Bank Street Writer and OS2? I remember the days before we had a dominant OS. I had a PC with Dr. Dos. It worked like a charm as long as I didn't try to work with any systems with other OS's or share files with anyone else. Everyone in your office had to have the same OS and same office software or it would require an IT department to convert all the data from Lotus to Corel.
Apple came out with the super drive. A 3.5 floppy disc that could write IBM disks. It didn't really catch on. You still needed to buy file conversion software suite and manually convert documents to use different applications.
Now we have the Internet. Its becoming less and less important what OS a computer is running. Files are just automatically converted to run on the local system behind the scenes. The Anti-Microsoft attitude is pointless. It's an artifact from the pre WWW times. The internet has made the dominant OS issue moot. It has made the brand of software we use moot. What OS am I using right now? Who Cares. What web browser am I using Right now? It doesn't matter.
I was so annoyed I forgot my point.
I hope this search engine works better then there current one.
Microsoft's current search engine sucks. If I need to find an MSDN page I'm better off going to google than trying to use the search box on Microsoft's site. There current search engine is worse than useless it wastes my time and I have complained many times.
I don't know why Google is so much better than every one else at search but it's painfully obvious that they are. I try Yahoo every 2 or 3 years and it never finds a thing.
Maybe we need to break the evil G$$gle monopoly.
I'm pretty satisfied about Google right now!
I see no reason why to change!
MSN sucks.
And Windows is the type of company that would not give you all results (they probably will block certain P2P and bittorrent related sites), so no thank you for me!
Google might be in power, but I can not say Google annoys me with too much spam, or no good searches!
The only thing I probably dislike about google is it's logo, but apart from that it's really the fastest and best searchengine I know!
Bad name again, OMG! You can say "google for x", but in the case of Kumo.com, how would you say "... for x"?
you'd probably say "kumo x" rather than "kumo for x"
rather than semantic searching, they should offer something like thesaurus searching. Take your search words, see if they can match terms in a thesaurus (logically I would hope. I wouldn't want to see a search for "red ford truck" come up with "angry traversal exchange") and then search meta tags for those.
At 2% market share, it will take more than just rebranding to help them - they need technical innovation.