Microsoft is planning to make Bing profitable in the next several years, by enhancing the precision and relevance level of the service offered by the search engine.

Bing has already started that initiative by giving data and information, such as flight data, product results, sports information, etc. However, such information are being provided by Google as well, and so Bing has not been able to meet its objective yet.

In an interview with CNN Money Qi Lu, president of Online Services, Microsoft, said: Bing will be successful in its objective once it is able to bring fundamental changes in the way users perceive search engine. That will make users choose Bing over its competitors.

Lu has also claimed Bing to have more advantages in the forms of partnerships and product integrations, which allows it to be experimental and adaptable more in comparison to Google.

Microsoft has lost huge amounts over Bing after the latter's launch. However, Bing has managed to develop idea about user search habits. Its search alliance with Yahoo! and the integrated SERP results for both have also caught advertisers' attention.

However, analysts feel that the process discussed by Lu will take time to yield results, even three to four years. And it is not sure whether it there will be any results at all.

It may be mentioned here that despite almost doubling its size since the 2009 launch, Bing has lost majoroty of its shares to other market players. And these players who have taken away its shares include Yahoo!, AOL and Ask, and not Google.

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Microsoft's Plan To Make Bing Profitable!

The Microsoft website has been flooded with messages from unhappy Hotmail users who are complaining of missing e-mails in their account. There seems to be a new bug that deleted e-mails from the users' inboxes. A lousy way to begin a year for the Hotmail users.

It seems a huge number of Hotmail users are having the issue as there are over 3 full pages of complaints. The cause of the problem is not yet known and is currently under investigation by Windows Live support experts who are reportedly working on a fix. The affected users are being asked to stay calm meanwhile.

TheGodfather2010, a user, said in his complaint that all his emails from the last 5 years had disappeared. A user by the name 'freedomnow' also said that all his folders including the inbox and sent folders were emptied and a lot of important information was lost. One user went one to say that Hotmail is ignoring the obvious, and that the problem is with their server, not with emails being deleted by users.

Well whatever the issue be, let us hope that the cause of it will be identified and the loss recovered as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it would indeed put the victims in big trouble. Losing E-mails with important information is a real pain. Good luck to all the experts at Windows Live support and the affected users.

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Hotmail Users Kicks Off the New Year With Missing E-mails

MSNBot will be renamed to BingBot on 1st October this year, as said by the Bing Search Blog 

The whole Microsoft's Bing team has been busy in testing the beta bot since November of last year. With effect from 1st October, this beta label would be removed from the Bot and it would be renamed as BingBot.

With this report, people who have directives for MSNBot are in perplexed situation as to what directives will be obeyed by the BingBot. To this confusion, Bing has said that those who already have directives for MSNBot in their robots. txt file, BingBot will obey those directives only. However, if in another case someone has both the directives, say, one for MSNBot and the other one for BingBot, in that case Microsoft will listen to the directives for BingBot.

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Microsoft will Rename MSNBot as BingBot!

Yahoo! has filed a document with SEC saying that Microsoft failed to finalize the deal by October 27, 2009. Although, there is a statement in the document saying that progress was being made.

Here's the extract:

“On October 28, 2009, Yahoo! Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Yahoo!"), and Microsoft Corporation, a Washington corporation ("Microsoft"), mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute a Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and a License Agreement (the "Definitive Agreements") reflecting and supplementing the provisions of such agreements as set forth in annexes to their binding letter agreement dated July 29, 2009 (the "Letter Agreement"). The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible. The Letter Agreement was the subject of a Current Report on Form 8-K filed by Yahoo! on August 4, 2009”.

When Nathania Johnson from Search Engine Watch reached out to Microsoft to get further updates on the comment, the response was received after the news of the document spread:

“Microsoft and Yahoo! are committed to this agreement and believe this is a highly competitive deal that is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We have made good progress in finalizing the definitive agreements. Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. So, the teams at Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement. We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010”.

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The Deal Implementation Between Microsoft and Yahoo! Delayed

Microsoft has launched their Mobile Behavioral Targeting Solution, which means all of the powerful behavioral targeting options, categories and segments that were previously available on their online properties will now be available to buyers of their mobile display inventory.

Mobile behavioral targeting will help the advertisers reduce their advertising waste and refine their ROI of their mobile ad campaigns by targeting the consumers who are interested in various product categories. Popular advertiser categories such as Retail, Technology, Travel, Automotive, Financial Services, Health, Lifestyle and more are available for purchase.

How does Microsoft measure behavior?

Microsoft Behavioral Targeting tracks the behavioral of users by classifying them into different segments using the following data sources:

• PC Web Site visits to various sites across the Microsoft network
• Microsoft network data (i.e. Hotmail newsletters, Xbox subscription data)
• Profile data from Windows Live
• PC Web keyword search behavior from Bing Search

With Microsoft Mobile Behavioral Targeting, your mobile ads are served to the users interested in your desired segments. It helps you reach and increase your campaign's performance. Microsoft protects customers' privacy and adheres to high privacy standards. Their Mobile Behavioral Targeting Solutions do not use personally identifiable information such as name, address or phone number.

If you want to experience better results for online marketing, Microsoft Mobile Behavioral Targeting would be a better option that powers the performance of your ad campaign. For details about Mobile Behavioral Targeting, just check out Mobile Advertising site.

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Microsoft Comes With Mobile Behavioral Targeting Solution

In an attempt to encourage searchers to use Bing more, Microsoft has come up with a great idea recently. Microsoft announced a “Bing stimulus package”, which is a Cashback program as per which searchers will get cashback rewards as high as 50 percent upon purchasing products from select merchants. The cashback offer starts 10 August for a limited time.

Earlier, Microsoft had offered cashback up to 35 percent, but this time searchers are offered with almost double cashback as compared to before. To get the rewards, searchers out there need to search for what they are looking for at Bing. After entering your search, look for the Cashback rewards icon on the search ads. Then follow the steps as shown there in order to get up to 50 percent back.

Here is a screenshot of a search for “GPS Receiver”:

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Microsoft Offering Double Cashback To Give Bing A Boost

Microsoft Advertising, along with other ad agencies is taking part in a contest named, “The Big Ad Gig” . The contest will feature eight contestants competing for a job at a top ad agency. The New York Times Building will host the contest at 10:00 AM on Thursday, September 24, in conjunction with Advertising Week 09.

'The Big Ad Gig' will have a panel of Creative Directors, CEO's and marketing leaders from leading ad agencies like Atmosphere Proximity, Ogilvy, Crispin, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, The Ad Council and Microsoft Advertising. The panel will judge the eight contestants who will be vying for the chance to work a 30-day paid freelance gig at one of above top ad agencies. New York Times advertising columnist, Stuart Elliot will be the moderator at the event.

Also, one winning campaign will be produced and run across Microsoft Advertising's media properties, including gaming, online and mobile.

“Our core mission at Microsoft Advertising is to build the platforms, content and technologies that breathe life into the big dreams and creative vision of today's top advertising minds,” said Charles Johnson, General Manager of Mobile Media for Microsoft Advertising.“We are excited to help foster a new generation of advertising talent, and look forward to bringing the winning concept to life.”

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Microsoft Advertising To Join Top Ad Agencies and The New York Times For 'The Big Ad Gig'

After months of speculation, finally Yahoo and Microsoft search and online advertising deal is now official.

As per Yahoo’s Carol Bartz:

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry, and I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development. Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences."

And Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has this to say:

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

The companies have also established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

From SEM and SEO point of view the key points to note are:

1. The deal will be complete by next year (2010) only.
2. Yahoo Publisher Network will probably be closed down. So we will only have adcenter and adwords to worry about.
3. Bing will become No.2 Search engine and by default Yahoo, Alltheweb, Altavista, Inktomi etc will be powered by Bing.
4. The deal will initially be for 10 years

More to come from the live conference which is happening right now. Read more at Yahoo! official blog: http://ycorpblog.com/2009/07/29/what-our-microsoft-deal-means-to-you

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Microsoft & Yahoo! Search Deal Final!

Finally the long suspense and wait is over. Microsoft is finally launching its search engine with a new name- Bing. Bing is much like Live Search, with new added features and technologies like Powerset. Boasting of being the new Decision engine rather than the usual search engine, it is playing upon three key areas. As per the website it focuses on “features like cashback, where we actually give you money back on great products, and Price Predictor, which actually tells you when to buy an airline ticket in order to help get you the best price — help you make smarter decisions, and put money back in your pocket”.

The searches on Bing are more refined and comes with additional information. On each search you get additional information on the left side of the page , neatly arranged in categorical preferences.

The left side bar has various other options like News, Videos , Images relevant to the searches , which you can browse through.

More over the search results have snippet options, if you move your mouse over them a brief summary rolls out providing meta data also if available.(as seen below) . There are other interesting features which Bing has, like it provides best prices for your travel preference, with subsequent prediction if the price is falling or increasing.

Considered as the next Google, Bing is overhauled as the biggest competitor for Google. Microsoft had previously named it Kumo and now its Bing. With a record 80 million dollar on marketing stake for Bing, I guess the next generation Decision Engine is finally here.

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Bing in Google out?

Microsoft has finally decided close down the Question and Answer portal, MSN QnA by May 21, 2009.

“At this time, we are closing the QnA site, but the experience of running QnA and gathering all of the great feedback you’ve shared with us will certainly influence future product direction.”

The beta version of QnA was launched in August 2006 and also underwent a major upgradation about a year ago.

In the meantime, users can continue to ask questions and have discussions on various topics through MSN message boards.

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Microsoft Closing Down QnA Beta Site

As we all know that Microsoft is going to rebrand its search engine “Windows Live Search” with a brand new name called “Microsoft Kumo”. The new search engine will finally be launched on June 2nd and expected to attract more users.

Here's a screenshot of Microsoft Kumo:

Although, the features of the new search engine are not yet clear, but an official announcement would be made on June 2 along with its planned summer advertisements. It is also not yet clear whether Kumo would integrate with Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 7. Reports indicate that Microsoft Kumo can be broken down by relevant categories.

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"Microsoft Kumo" Expected to Launch on June 2nd

Microsoft recently launched a new pubCenter beta. Publishers who are looking to earn money through their site can take the advantage of the pubCenter site. Currently, all publishers can sign up for free at the pubCenter site.

Here are some of the main highlights of the new pubCenter Beta.

“ The Microsoft pubCenterBeta offers you the chance to include advertising from one of the leading online advertising networks on your web site. With the pubCenterBeta you can:

• Place ads on your web site—realizing revenue potential with relevant ads targeted to your audience.
• Customize ads to the look and feel of your web site.
• Gain access to one of the largest advertising networks, delivering high-quality ads.
• Monitor performance with a variety of tracking features.

As a beta user, you’ll also have the opportunity to earn money and influence the direction of this new advertising marketplace.”

However, this site is only open to the US at present. According to one of the recent reports, “ Microsoft is actively seeking publishers to join and test contextual ads on their sites.”

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Microsoft Launches New pubCenter Beta

Yesterday we had reported that Microsoft is rebranding the Live Search into the Kumo brand . But there was no official confirmation from any source barring the official memo by Satya Nadella, a Microsoft senior vice president.

Now just after 24 hours, the software giant has finally made some official statements related to this test!

"There's a good deal of excitement brewing over this test, both internally and externally, which we're always glad to see," Microsoft Live Search general manager Mike Nichols wrote in an online message.

"Our hope is that our employees will give us great feedback on our new features and that it all becomes part of the external experience soon."

The Web world was filled with speculation regarding whether Microsoft intends to replace its Live Search with Kumo or what exactly would happen in the future! But now the air is somewhat getting clear with the statements that are coming from behind!

We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks," Nadella wrote.

"During the test, features will vary by country, but you'll see results organized in a way that saves you more time."

Let us see what happens next!

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More On "Microsoft Testing Internet Search Engine Kumo!"

Microsoft Corp. recently announced their revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter.

What can you expect in this period of recession? Negative reports ofcourse. Their quarterly profits were down (contrary to revenue, that showed a slight increase):

“Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.94 billion, $4.17 billion and $0.47, declines of 8%, 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with the prior year.”

As a result, their stocks went down by 7% in early trading, and not to mention the massive layoffs in the upcoming future. There are both rumors as well as reports :

“While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”

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Microsoft Earnings Announced- Profits Down, Cutoffs In Jobs and More!

Who gives perks in recession? Well, Microsoft is doing that!

Microsoft’s SearchPerks program is running an incentive and giving away double tickets for three days!

These tickets are for every search with a maximum of 50 tickets available that can be earned each day. It is especially done to encourage the participants to do more searches on Live Search. (Jan 21, Jan 22, Jan 23)
SearchPerks is notifying members with an email that looks something like the below snapshot:

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Microsoft Offers SearchPerks Incentive

Recently Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made diverse announcements on the company's vision for personal computing, high-profile distribution deals for Live Search, and other aspects during his keynote address at CES.

It was not long back when Microsoft signed a deal with Dell that new Dell computers will be shipped with the Live search bar preinstalled.

In another speculation based on an initial Wall Street Journal report, Reuters announced that Verizon has chosen Microsoft to be its mobile search partner. It is said that the alliance will provide potentially huge mobile reach to Microsoft. Microsoft provided the following statement about the Reuters report:

“We can confirm the Microsoft, Verizon Wireless mobile search and advertising relationship, but have no further details to disclose at this time. Please stay tuned for more information.”

Have a look at the table below. It depicts the current distribution deals for various search engines for the 3Q of 2008:

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Microsoft Strikes Deals with Dell Computers, Verizon Phones

The recession period is going strong! That means layoff procedure is still at its peak. According to certain reports, Microsoft is planning to lay off 17 percent of its total work force on or around January 15th.

So even this successful technology company is not spared from one of the biggest economic confrontations of all time. According to various specifications, it seems that a lot of layoffs will be seen in the MSN group, and other Microsoft EMEA divisions. To know more about the issue, tune in to Techmeme.

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Microsoft To Lay Off 15,000 Employees!

According to a news by a Seattle-focused Web site “TechFlash, Brad Goldberg,
general manager for Live Search, has joined the the list of other executives to quit the company as he will head up the online business at an investment-firm Peak 6 very soon.

According to Cnet news, a Microsoft representative came out with the following statement:

“We can confirm that Brad Goldberg has decided to leave Microsoft to pursue an opportunity outside the company. Mike Nichols, another Microsoft veteran, will take over as General Manager for Live Search product management effective January 1. We are pleased to welcome Mike to the team and wish Brad the very best in his new role.”

It is confirmed that Mike Nichols will fill the role next…

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Live Search General Manager Brad Goldberg Leaving Microsoft

According to a report by ZDNet, Microsoft has signed a mutual deal with Dell that new Dell computers will be shipped with the Live search bar preinstalled – rather than going for Google!

It was in the year 2006, Google had a tie up with Dell on the issue of installing Google software on "millions of Dell personal computers.” The Dell-Google deal also included a co-branded Dell-Google home page

But as per now there has not been any official confirmation by Microsoft or Dell, but speculations are going on that if it is true, then it can create a lot of problems in Europe.

A lot of webmasters are commenting on this issue in their own ways:

“Microsoft and Dell have signed a deal via which Dell will be shipping new PCs with the Live Search toolbar preinstalled, according to sources familiar with the arrangement between the two companies…

“The (potential) problem for DELL and Microsoft is that in the EU at least it's illegal to use a (de-facto) monopoly to gain market advantage in other areas.” -SWA66

Forum discussion going on at WebmasterWorld.

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Microsoft and Dell Finally Collaborate For Default Search Toolbar Integration

As reported by Liveside.net, Microsoft owns a new domain name kumo.com and the website is pointing towards an internal Microsoft test site. This site can only be accessed by Microsoft employees. The name Kumo standing for cloud or spider was amongst other names, which were mentioned in a post written by Mary Jo Foley, where she discussed about Microsoft's plan of rebranding Live Search.

She clearly wrote: "I understand Microsoft's desire to rebrand the Live Search because it has experienced so many transformations in the past years, which made it pretty confusing. I get confused most of the time while using its search engine. Although, it is accessible the moment you type in Live.com but the confusion comes in case of name recall and for writing purposes."

Microsoft is seriously considering Kumo as a new way of presenting Live Search product, but will this really help the search engine? Live Search does not have problem with its branding, but other aspects of search engine are the lacking points. Google and Yahoo have name recall and effective branding advantage and they are capable of establishing their names as form of actions denoting "search."

The question now comes is, will Kumo be able to establish the same thing? But it is too early to comment anything. Let's wait for Microsoft to re-launch its search engine with a new name may be next year!

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Is Kumo a New Name for Microsoft's Live Search?