Microsoft has already admitted that it has a branding issue with Live Search, and in this regard the company's answer might just be Kumo. The software giant has not confirmed anything officially, but fact is that more and more Kumo-related moves are pointing to the imminent death of Live Search as a brand. In a trademark filing dating to December 4, 2008, Microsoft was looking to register Kumo for a variety of products and services. The list presented by the Redmond giant is nothing short of luxuriant, but the mentioning of search engine software, Internet search engines, and search engine services manage to stand out.

Microsoft is trying to trademark Kumo for “computer software and hardware; including computer search engine software and downloadable software; advertising services including dissemination of advertising for others via the Internet, business services including providing links to the websites of others, providing consumer and product information; telecommunication services, including receipt and delivery of information, messages, documents, images and other data by electronic transmission; education; providing of training; entertainment, including entertainment services via Internet search engines; design and development of computer hardware and software; computer services including search engine services and the providing of downloadable and non-downloadable software.” (emphasis added)

The trademark filing (via SeattlePI) is simply just the latest step Microsoft is making towards what continues to be an unconfirmed re-branding of Live Search. The Redmond giant has already taken ownership of the Kumo.com domain, and is hosting it on DNS servers connected with Live Search. Following failed negotiation talks with Yahoo, the software giant is trying to grow its share of the search engine market organically, relying exclusively on the evolution of its search technology.

Search engine branding is one area where the Redmond company has not been successful in producing a valid alternative to Google. Moreover, while Google is synonymous with search, Live Search offers no added value to Microsoft's service. In this regard, it remains to be seen whether Kumo will be able to make a difference.