Microsoft’s Kumo VS Google – Sneak Peek

At the D: All Things Digital conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil and talk more about new search engine dubbed Kumo.

The long expected upgrade to the Live Search product from Microsoft (MSFT) is being tested for a public rollout later this year. The blogosphere was a-twitter, literally, after a Twitter post by Powerset co-founder Barney Pell this past weekend, about a rebranding and updating of the search offering. (Microsoft acquired Powerset last year and Pell works on search strategy.) – from All Things D

Ending one of the worst kept secrets in Redmond, Microsoft is apparently going to publicly present its new “Kumo” branded Web search engine at the Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif., next week. – from Seattle

Personally, I doubt Kumo will be the new name. After being used in testing, any “thunder” with that name is kind of gone. Plus, I’ve seen plenty of people on the web ridicule that name as a new brand choice. Sift seems potentially tied to a Microsoft mobile platform, plus Sift.com is actually owned by someone else. Hook.com also is owned by someone else. Bing.com resolves to a blank page, is registered to Microsoft and uses Microsoft’s name servers. So that’s what I’d guess it’s going to be. -from Danny Sullivan