Microsoft launches search engine 'Bing'

Bangalore: Stepping up its competition against Google, Microsoft has reformed its search engine Kumo and launched it in new name, 'Bing'. Microsoft is still trying to strike a partnership with Yahoo to increase its stronghold in the search engine market.

There were many reports indicating that Microsoft is planning to invest $80 million to $100 million in ad campaign to promote Bing. Microsoft declined to comment on the report. "We would have what I would call a big budget, big enough that I had to gulp when I approved the budget," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who unveiled Bing at a technology conference in Carlsbad, California.

The competition won't be easy at all. Last month, Google took 64.2 percent of U.S. Internet searches and handled 9.5 billion out of a total of 14.8 billion searches. Yahoo was on second spot with 20.4 percent of searches followed by Microsoft at 8.2 percent according to a firm comScore.

Microsoft agrees that it won't be expecting too much in first year. "My time frame is lots of years. I don't have a specific forecast, but this is lots of years," said Ballmer.

Microsoft is calling its search engine a 'decision engine' because it will automatically pull out close relevant search. For example, a search on a type of car will bring up search options such as 'problems,' 'reviews' and 'dealers,' the most likely places a Web user will want to go from the initial search. Other features include getting directions to locations, and the ability to hover over a search result to see more information, without having to open a new link.