13 March 2009 | Author: Katie Todd

Microsoft's Kumo flashes new homepage

Recently, it was revealed that Microsoft was internally testing its new search engine, Kumo. Speculations that Kumo was a Live Search brand replacement buzzed across the web, but were lambasted by Microsoft and swiftly put to rest. Or were they?

Now, after the currently-unavailable www.kumo.com showed an image of a search engine homepage branded with Microsoft's Kumo logo, the whisperings are back to a buzz and the busy bees at bigmouthmedia decided to see what the fuss is about.


















It looks like the rumours are, in part, true. Andy Beal at Market Pilgrim managed to get in touch with Microsoft and received an official response from the company regarding the homepage. According to Beal's update, Microsoft said:

"Microsoft is using the Kumo.com URL for internal testing purposes only. Given the depth and breadth of our current online service offering, we recognize a need to sharply define and align our online brands. However, we have nothing new to announce at this time."

This seems disappointing at first - a fresh face in search provides the sort of online drama we bigmouths thrive on - but it looks like the above is Microsoft's roundabout way of admitting that, actually, it very possibly is rebranding Live Search to a spunkier version that'll draw the hoards away from that pesky Google - which, we all know, isn't exactly Microsoft's best friend.

Further screenshots on Market Pilgrim show the search engine results page - where an incredibly thorough set of results is displayed, including categorisation of all results that the American songstress falls under, including images, songs, lyrics, biography - all of which can be arranged thanks to a menu on the left.

Paid ads retain their place on the right, as in Google's search, but if Kumo really goes ahead it could prove to be more than a tough challenge to everybody's favourite search engine. Years ago when Google first surfaced, everybody loved it because it was built on simplicity. However, in the age of synchronisation, consolidation and the BlackBerry, maybe it's the perfect timing for Microsoft's more complex engine to surface.

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