The potential rebranding will cause a hugely negative shockwave across the internet!
The Live.com team have met their match it seems with the continued pressure from Google and Yahoo, and they are bailing out from a large software platform they designed under the "Windows Live" name and supposedly according to rumours they will be changing to "Kumo.com".
What does the word Kumo mean?
Kumo, according to the Guardian means "cloud" or "spider", so whether the Windows Live team would be looking to refer to their search engine as the cloud search engine perhaps referring to how Windows Live largely exists in the cloud, or spider search engine although this would be plain and simple and is basically explaining the technology behind a search engine
Of course this news isn't that new for some people close to Microsoft, in fact Mary Jo Foley of ZDNET was getting tips that there would be a name change, however this is the names she got through:
- Bing
- Hook
- Kumo
Now, honestly please tell you didn't laugh at "Bing" (I will just "BING it") or maybe the though of Chandler Bing from the TV series "Friends" was the obvious association for you. And honestly if you look at how Microsoft may be approaching the name change it would seem they are being very much like "Chandler", because they are using humour in some ways as defence to a matter of how to make Live.com come alive as a more exciting portal for search.
There is certainly not a single vote of confidence for Live.com right now, even the Group Marketing Manager of Live Search admitted there was a branding issue across the Windows Live Platform. There were even some questions being raised back at the height of the Microsoft/Yahoo talks about whether Live would be rebranded
So will it happen?
Everyone in the blogosphere is airing on the side of caution with these rumours, some think it will happens, others don't. However the most promising sign that Microsoft could be using kumo.com comes from this WHOIS entry which confirms Microsoft as the owner . But honestly there is no guarantee and until we get some firm confirmation from Microsoft I would say its an open book.
But there does need to be some change!
Image Source: https://www.gamerbytes.com/img_33742_microsoft-windows-live-logo_450x360.jpg
