It Ain’t Crosby

Bing was on last night, and no, it’s not Bing Crosby.

Microsoft, tired of watching Google cash in on the search engine game, has been testing their super secret search engine for some months now under the ultra-secret name, Kumo. (It is hard to believe that these people make money, isn’t it?) Along with the huge product release comes the equally huge budget, rumored to be upwards of $80 Million, although Microsoft would not confirm.

“We’ll have what I would call a big budget — big enough that I had to gulp when I approved the budget,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who unveiled Bing at a technology conference in Carlsbad, California, run by the All Things Digital tech blog.

The spot, code named “Manifesto,” was on prime time television last night. While the visuals are sometimes a bit confusing, the Google-gauging “one-liners,” such as “we don’t need queries and keywords if the bring back questions and confusion,” and “from this moment on, the search overload is officially, over” are loud and clear.

The creative kudos go to JWT for coming up with a very cool spot. However, it is not known if they came up with the name, and as everybody knows, part of winning the online new product introduction game is coming up with a goofy, yet memorable name. Such as “Bing.” Your search is done.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.