Kumo Is Live, Live Search's Killer Debuts into Testing

Microsoft has debuted into testing the service designed to kill Live Search. Dubbed Kumo, Japanese for spider or cloud, the new search engine from the Redmond company is now live, however, it is accessible only internally, to Microsoft employees. Kumo is an integral part of the software giant's efforts to fuel the organic evolution of its search engine, having failed to acquire Yahoo in 2008. Microsoft emphasized that Kumo was used exclusively as the codename for the internal test service. In this respect, the company is yet to announce the final label for the Live Search killer. However, make no mistake about it, Microsoft is not only cooking a new search engine designed to bring it closer to Google, but is also getting ready to completely rebrand Live Search.

“In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40 percent of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46 percent of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don't find what they need from search today,” revealed in an email to Microsoft employees Satya Nadella, senior vice president, Research and Development, Online Services Division, according to Beyond Binary.

Nadella indicated that over the course of the next few days all internal traffic pointing to Live.com would be redirected to Kumo.com. The move is designed to generate as much feedback as possible from Microsoft's own employees. At this point in time the software giant failed to deliver any sort of indication as to when Kumo.com will be opened to the general public. The screenshot on the left is in this context the sole taste available of Kumo outside of Redmond.

“We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you'll see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions,” Nadella added.