28 May 09 Wave goodbye to Bing

So Microsoft are finally ready to unleash the new generation search engine, Bing, which they have done without actually letting anyone use it. Genius.

BTW guys, your revolutionary new interface looks exactly like Hakia, which is also a next generation of search and a Google Killer.

What’s interesting about the Bing launch, is that just minutes after MS formally announced Bing, Google responded with some nebulous stuff about a revolutionary new productivity/communications tool called Wave.  

This seems a bit petty to me, as through Google are putting a stake in the ground, and telling MS that if they start intruding on their core product, then Google will respond with a similar invasion.

One of my colleagues, Luke Regan said recently that the only way Bing (or Kumo as we knew it then) would get traction in the market place is if Microsoft created an advertising message that followed the pattern of iPhone, concentrating on how the UI was so good that it made everything easier.  Luke put that in a much more elegant way.

I wonder what the $100 million that they’re going to spend marketing Bing will buy them.

If Google have been scared by Bing, and to be honest, their recent spate of new mini launches like Wonder Wheel and the larger number of search refinement tools they offer that look a lot like a Googlized version of Bing indicate that MS may have touched a nerve in Mountain View, the next couple of months could be very interesting.