Microsoft's new search engine, 'Bing' is causing consternation amongst marketing specialists, with a number of critics pointing out the flaws in the Redmond software giant's choice of word.
Will you, as Microsoft wishes, 'verb up' and use the word 'Bing' to denote searching for something on the internet, much as we have all got used to using Google as a verb?
"Unfortunately we think the name reminds us mostly of Sopranos strippers and the guy who knocked up Elizabeth Hurley," reports Valleywag. " Microsoft FAIL!"
Google it up
The new revamped version of Live Search has its work cut out for it if it wishes to claw back some market share from Google.
So what do you think? Does Bing conjure up "the sound of found" for you, as Steve Ballmer and co. clearly hope it will?
Ballmer likes Bing's potential to "verb up," adding, "it works globally, and doesn't have negative, unusual connotations."
Former Coca-Cola Company marketing man Peter Sealey thinks that "Bing has no equity; it signals nothing... It is going to be an enormous expense to create an image for this thing called Bing."
Do tech product names suck? TechRadar's Gary Marshall certainly seems to think so...
Via New York Times
Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
marybranscombe
June 1st
2. It may be a reference to the classic GNU self-referential naming covention: GNU's Not Unix, Bing Is Not Google... or the noise the microwave makes when it's done!
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thegilb
May 29th
1. Bing will fail if it's seen as an inferior copycat. Bing has a fun name, but will it be an effective search tool? Style over substance has always been a recipe for fail in the search engine stakes. Google IS internet searching, but what is Bing?
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