Comments on: Ballmer on Bing, the economy, and more

Microsoft's CEO takes the D: All Things Digital stage to announce Bing, Microsoft's revamped search engine.

[Mr. Dee]

No pictures Ina?

[ralph spoilsport]

"We certainly flailed with Windows before we got it right,"

When did you get it right?

[Seaspray0]

When did they not get it right? Windows ME and vista, according to the reviews.

[jbonzo11]

So in 2 years i wonder what name MS will rebrand 'Bing' under- hoping we'll have forgotten the failures of Bing and Live Search.

[B-Ri]

Pictures of what? Mossberg and Ballmer sitting on a stage? Not exactly a draw for a website.

[miaminica]

I'll give Bing a spin but I HATE that name. BING?? Kumo had already a word of mouth.

Ina, post pictures -- oh, and a video, too!

[ddanckaert]

Bing it on!

Show me your bing!

Somehow, I think this is just another so-so brand (throw it at the wall see if it sticks) effort. (Even though I fully realize they're going to spend 150+ million advertising it over the next year)

[Earl Benzar]

Microsoft is old and stodgy and boring. All the kool kids want WolframAlpha.

[Seaspray0]

WolframAlpha is not a complete search engine. It is limited in what areas it catalogs for search. All the geek kids want google.

[monkeyfun14]

Since when did the cool kids enjoy looking up statistics? O-o?

[The_happy_switcher]

Uncle Fester looks like he wants to punch Uncle Walt.

[Seaspray0]

If you look closely at the picture, it appears Balmer's making a fist with both hands. Mossberg looks like he's just sitting there not even attempting to defend himself (maybe he's a pacifist). I think Balmer is even showing a bit of teeth like in one of those "grrrrrr" moments. I'm betting on the guy with the fists. Atleast it looks like he's putting up a fight.

[Kwasiowusu]

From the article: " Ballmer now talking about why Bing. He said the company wanted something that was short, could be used as a verb and didn't have "negative or unusual" connotations. "

I have a few questiions for Ballmer myself, as a shareholder:
Hey Ballmer, what is wrong with the name "Live search" ?
And if you think "Bing" is so cute, why the heck did you not use "Bing" when you changed "msn search" to "Live serach" a few years back?
Why the heck do you have to keep on changing the name of Microsoft's search engine all the time?
Did it coccur to you that you are totally confusing the users of Microsoft's search offerings, with all this constant name changes , and that is costing you valuable market share as confused users simply switch to other search engines?
Are you aware that the last time you switched from "msn search" to Live serach", you ended up losing market share from 15% market share(msn serach) to only 10% market share today for Live search?
Do you realise that neither Yahoo nor Google have ever changed the name of their search engines, but still have much bigger market share in search than Microsoft does?
Are you going to change the name of Microsoft search yet again from "Bing" to another name, if you continue to lose market share after introducing "Bing"?
If the answer is "yes", please may I remind you of one definition of "stupidity", which is: "Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result"?
Lets just take a look at all the search name changes you have kept confusing consumers with over the years shall we?

First we had
MSN Search
then
Live Search
then
Windows Live Search( if you think that's the same thing as Live Search, think again. You get slightly different search results under the Windows Live)
and now
Kumo/Bing

Please STOP already!
What is wrong with MSN Search or Microsoft Search or even Windows Search?
But no, Microsoft has to go and confuse it's search users even more with some name(Bing), which is defined in the dictionary as:
Pronunciation: (bing), [key]
?n. Brit. Dial.
a heap or pile.
or
Pronunciation: (bing), [key]
?v.i. Obs.
to go.
or
Pronunciation: (bing), [key]
?n.
a variety of dark red or blackish sweet cherry. Also called Bing' cher'ry.
http://dictionary.infoplease.com/bing

From the article:
"He put the renaming in context.
"This is a very important step," Ballmer said. "It doesn't substitute for innovation." "

Changing the name YET AGAIN is a "very important step" is it?
What's important about it?
You did it at least twice already, and it only resulted in Microsoft losing even more market share.

[NeoReader]

How long before Microsoft snatches up NeoMedia Technologies and dominates the mobile barcode space?

NeoMedia Technologies grandfathered this technology back in the mid 90?s and have been doing mobile code scanning and comparison shopping via barcodes long before any other company in this space.

NeoMedia on ABC & NBC News circa 2004:
http://www.qode.com/videos/PaperClickOnAbc7.wmv http://www.qode.com/videos/PaperClickOnNbc8.wmv

NeoMedia has a rich patent portfolio that covers scanning barcodes with a camera enabled mobile device to connect to the Internet, comparison shop, and/or retrieve online content.

http://www.qode.com/en/patents.jsp

[GotwhatIneed]

"search identifies best match, sometimes hiding other results when there is one clear match that someone is looking for"

MS has always been soooooo sure they knew what was best for you, the unintelligent consumer, better than you do yourself. To whom is it clear that I'm looking for what they call "one clear match"? Suppose I'm a Real Human and don't think like an MS robot ? This is about as unhelpful as any MS attempt at "help" I ever saw. No wonder people prefer Google...

[LLIB_SETAG]

BaldyBot Ballmer looks like he's saying:

" C'mon, C'mon you young whipper snappers, I can take you, yeh, yeh, you see, yeh that's the ticket, I'll murder the bums, yeh, c'mon you scardy cats! Get off my lawn, you young punks!"

[LLIB_SETAG]

Is Steve Ballmer OK? How is his health? He always looks like he's about to have a stroke, pop a vein & go totally psycho!!!

Dude, take a pill, for your sake & the health of your company.