Well these are the people who thought up 'Microsoft Bob'. However, if 'Bing' was to be associated with cherries, they have a nice little postive, cute symbol to invoke and brand. - Barbara

I've got two words for you: Microsoft Songsmith. No idea ever will be dumber than that. - James Poling from email

this article says, "Google has become the search language verb." so by this reasoning any search engine name that isn't "Google" is a stupid name. not exactly a compelling argument. - Karim

I like the name. I give them my permission to use it. It's one of the big words in my world. http://www.google.com/search... - Dave Winer

Karim: I'm not sure that was the argument. I don't think the point was that anything that's not named "Google" is stupid. He's just saying that to be able to compete with Google that is one of the levels you are going to have to compete with them on, as a verb. And no one is ever going to say with a straight face, "hey, I Binged you last night". At least I hope not. - James Poling from email

James, then maybe you can explain to me how "bing" as a verb is any more intrinsically stupid than "google" as a verb? - Karim

i remember firing up a copy of Mosaic to browse this new thing called the World Wide Web. i remember thinking "World Wide Web" was a pretty stupid name. someone told me i needed to go to a site called "Yahoo" to search, and i thought that was a stupid name too. then they said there was this really good book store called "Amazon." and i thought calling a *book* store "Amazon" was just about the stupidest name i had ever heard of in my life. - Karim

Karim, I'm not sure a word can be "more intrinsically" stupid than another word, I just think the point that at least with Google, it was not a word that was widely associated with anything already, (unless you're a mathematician and you count googol). Either way it's a pretty subjective argument, I was just saying that I don't think the point of the story was that ANY word other than Google would be stupid but that one that is widely associated with something like a cherry may be. Again, there's obviously no "right" answer here, I was just pointing that out. - James Poling from email

thank you James - Steven Hodson

Is it too Zune to declare Bing a flop? - Louis Gray

@Louis :) nicely done - Steven Hodson

well there are several possible arguments being made and none of them make sense to me. one is that Google "owns" the verb (i.e. anything other that "google" is stupid). another is that it "bing" doesn't sound as good as "google" when used as a verb -- as if "googling" something sounds natural. the last argument you are making is that "bing" is associated with cherries and this is a Bad Thing -- more so than "Yahoo" being associated with morons or "Amazon" being associated with a river in South America. none of these arguments seem logical to me. - Karim

Steven, do you care to elaborate? - Karim

Bing Lee was already taken? - Will Higgins™

err, Bing is a singer. - Nathan Rein

Well, why not call it Bingle then - hang on, let me just bingle that first. -[ - Chris Loft

@Karim .. I realize that googling in of itself is a stupid term. I thought Google was a stupid name when I first heard it, but in our current web world Google *is* search. People use terms like "googled", "googling", "I googled you" as interchangable terms for "search". It has become the defacto way popular culture talks about - uses - search. If Microsoft wants to gain any ground it isn't going to be on the platform but as the AdAge post pointed out as well it will be in the minds and culture of the people which means they have to give people another verb to use instead of "google", "googling", "googled". They have to insert themselves into the culture - the language and I'm sorry but "Bing" isn't going to do it. - Steven Hodson

i hear you Steven, but what i'm not getting is *why* you think that. - Karim

<scratching head> hmmm .. because I don't believe that "Bing" as a verb e.g.: bing, binged, binging will be something that people will be able to incorporate in their natural language (with a straight face anyway) as they have with Google. I'm not saying I'm right I just feel that if Microsoft even wants a chance in search they really need to understand "the culture of popular language" and how it is incorporated in our lives. Bing doesn't work .. at least not in my opinion but then who am I really .... - Steven Hodson

I can imagine the marketing discussion that resulted in this name. Since google is the verb synonymous with search, they didn't even want to try to compete with that. To "google" something is a question, but they wanted to be the answer, as in "BING BING BING...I found the answer." - dthree

I can't think of BING without thinking of Mr. Crosby. - Harry McCracken

@David I can *almost* see that but still I think that should have gone back to their lines of coke and tried again - Steven Hodson

i'm scratching my head too, Steven, for a couple of reasons. first, i don't see why it sounds any less natural to say "let me bing that and get back to you" over "let me google that and get back to you." it's not like one is obviously correct and one is obviously wrong. second, even if you buy the argument that "bing" has worse conjugation than "google," it isn't clear what value the verb has. what did people say before Google? I "yahoo'ed" something? I "altavista'ed" something? I "asked Jeeves?" - Karim

After the name was announced, microsoft mgmt should have told their marketing consultants "BING BING BING, your fired!" - dthree

my point about Yahoo and Amazon is that the internet has been full of OMG *STUPID* names since Day One. but if you supply a service that people love ("Twitter?" Jesus...) it almost doesn't matter what the name is. whatever Microsoft's search is called is probably going to live or die on the quality of the search results, and not the name. i could be totally wrong about that, but that's how it seems to me. - Karim

@Karim check out the AdAge article http://adage.com/digital... .. it provides some interesting stuff to consider regarding the platform being the winner - Steven Hodson

Oh and I don't disagree with you about the silliness of name past and present. I just think that Google has gotten such a mindshare that it is going to be really difficult to fight that and it won't be based on the platform - unless of course Microsoft does manage to really shock and awe us with something new but I doubt it. - Steven Hodson

Thank you Karim...https://twitter.com/twitrjesus - James Poling from email

Well, it's better than Kumo, but that's not saying a lot. - AJ Kohn

Ditto Karim (and Adam Lasnik .....over on the other stream :). If it's quality (with a little subtle marketing) makes absolutely no difference what it's called. - Charlie Anzman

lol James... Steven, thanks for the Ad Age link. interesting article, but it seems to boil down to a brand loyalty argument... which is a factor, but not the only one. i think a lot of people will try it out. the threshold to do that is very low: lower than trying out a new web browser. the question for me is whether they will return. :-) to be sticky, they can't just have *parity* with Google, they really need to be better -- in the way that Google was clearly better when it came out. that's a pretty tall order... - Karim

@Karim .. or they have to be able to provide equal results in enough of a new and different way that will keep coming back. Not saying that they will be but that would be the one avenue forward - Steven Hodson

Would you prefer if they called it Bling? :-) http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Dave Winer

Forget the name, I want to know why MS insists on competing in the search space. I can't believe that MSN/Live search is making a profit, and MS isn't a search company. What is the motivation? - Glenn Slaven

@Glenn because there is too much money on the table for them not to be. Considering that even percentage points are worth millions (or more can't remember the exact figure but I bet Robert does) so even if they only double what they already have for marketshare they win - Steven Hodson

Bing. Not bad, but I'm not sure what the difference would be from what they have now if any. - Rick Cogley

Also, one possible past tense for "I binged it" is "I bunged it" which obviously is not such a positive connotation. - Rick Cogley

definitely not Rick LOL :) - Steven Hodson

binged bunged bonged? :-) - Rick Cogley

Terms are infinitely flexible -- they come to mean whatever they are associated with. If the product with which a term is associated is excellent, the term will sound just fine. If Google had been called Bing, Bing would now sound cool. Bing bam boom. Bada bing bada boom. - Sean McBride

The Beatles -- no way in hell that name could work for a rock band. - Sean McBride

Bing: instant of insight, of illumination. Sartori. Direct and fast. To the point. Instantaneous. - Sean McBride

+1 Sean - Todd Hoff

Microsoft needs to realise that they need to stop rebranding or find a dictionary word and spell it incorrectly by accident ;) - Nicholas James