Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Kiev Search? Microsoft’s new search brand?

LiveSide.net user “ma574ch33f117 performed a little interesting search over at Live Search and found something quite intriguing. In his comment, he states that he went to Live.com and searched “site:kumo.com” to see what results would come up with the domain. I went ahead and repeated that query and found other little details.

 

When you perform the search, you get a result titled “Kiev Search - Get to know Kiev Search” which contains a description:

“Get to know Kiev Search. Web. Search the web. cashback. Get money back when you shop at the online stores you know and trust. Images. Find the pictures that you've been looking for…”

 

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Additionally, Live Search even provided a cashed version of the site, which looks a lot like a current Live Search site.

Current “Kiev Search” (kumo.com) cached site on Live.com servers

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Current “Live Search” (similar site)

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I don’t know…you be the judge. But, “Kiev” is such a random brand name. Kumo at least had some meaning behind it (which means either “cloud” or “spider” in Japanese, depending on which Kanji characters are used, via Mary-Jo Foley). I don’t honestly know what to think anymore. After the resurfacing possible Yahoo search deal, multiple rebranding possibilities, and now “Kiev,” I just hope some Softie knows what they’re doing.

 

- Albert

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good eye. I'm with you, though... "Kiev" seems like such a strange name for a public brand. It'd make more sense as an internal code name (like "Chicago" for Win95)...

Anonymous said...

That's the code name for the next release :)

Anonymous said...

Huh, Kiev is the capital of Ukraine.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Adrian. "Kiev" is as strange a name for a contemporary brand as Bytown, Bombay or Constantinople would be. But if they're married to their choice, they should at least spell it "Kyiv." That way Microsoft won't look like it's still stuck in the 70s.

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