by News Editor
L. Sutherland
Shrouded in secrecy, Kumo's inception has drawn a huge amount of speculation across the industry. And with the unrelenting friendly feud between Microsoft and search masters Google, it's hardly a surprise that Kumo's creators have been doing their best to keep the upcoming, up-dated service under wraps.L. Sutherland
However, it seems that the wait may soon be over. According to the Wall Street Journal, rumours are currently abounding that Microsoft will unveil Kumo at D: All Things Digital - a technology conference in California - next week.
Lagging in a distant third place in the race for search supremacy, Microsoft has some way to go if it hopes to catch up with Google and Yahoo!. But that hasn't stopped the computer giant hoping that it can add something to the market.
According to WebProNews, Satya Nadella, senior vice president of research and development for Microsoft's online services division wrote in an internal memo: "In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40% of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46% of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes."
Microsoft's reportedly massive marketing budget hasn't made much of an appearance to date, making us wonder what the company is up to - and what will come of the current rumours. Kumo traffic was spotted in the wild as early as the beginning of April, yet Microsoft is keeping resolutely silent on the matter.
Making up the distance between Microsoft and forerunners Google may look like an impossible task, but if its release is responsible for shaking up the competition - especially in the promising semantic search sphere, we say - bring it on.
