History

MSN Search

MSN Search homepage in 2002

MSN Search homepage in 2006

Microsoft originally launched MSN Search in the third quarter of 1998, using
search results from Inktomi. It consisted of a search engine, index, and web
crawler. In early 1999, MSN Search launched a version which displayed listings
from Looksmart blended with results from Inktomi except for a short time in 1999
when results from AltaVista were used instead. Microsoft decided to make a
large investment in web search by building its own web crawler for MSN Search,
the index of which was updated weekly and sometimes daily. The upgrade
started as a beta program in November 2004, and came out of beta in February
2005.[12] This occurred a year after rival Yahoo! Search rolled out its own crawler
too. Image search was powered by a third party, Picsearch. The service also
started providing its search results to other search engine portals in an effort to
better compete in the market.
Windows Live Search
Windows Live Search homepage

The first public beta of Windows Live Search was unveiled on March 8, 2006,
with the final release on September 11, 2006 replacing MSN Search. The new
search engine used search tabs that include Web, news, images, music,
desktop, local, and Microsoft Encarta.
In the roll-over from MSN Search to Windows Live Search, Microsoft stopped
using Picsearch as their image search provider and started performing their own
image search, fueled by their own internal image search algorithms.[13]
Live Search

Live Search homepage, which would help to create the Bing homepage later on

On March 21, 2007, Microsoft announced that it would separate its search
developments from the Windows Live services family, rebranding the service as
Live Search. Live Search was integrated into the Live Search and Ad
Platform headed by Satya Nadella, part of Microsoft's Platform and Systems
division. As part of this change, Live Search was merged with Microsoft
adCenter.[14]
A series of reorganisations and consolidations of Microsoft's search offerings
were made under the Live Search branding. On May 23, 2008, Microsoft
announced the discontinuation of Live Search Books and Live Search
Academic and integrated all academic and book search results into regular
search, and as a result this also included the closure of Live Search Books
Publisher Program. Soon after, Windows Live Expo was discontinued on July 31,
2008. Live Search Macros, a service for users to create their own custom search
engines or use macros created by other users, was also discontinued shortly
after. On May 15, 2009, Live Product Upload, a service which allowed merchants
to upload products information onto Live Search Products, was discontinued. The
final reorganisation came as Live Search QnA was rebranded as MSN QnA on
February 18, 2009, however, it was subsequently discontinued on May 21,
2009.[15]
Rebrand as Bing

First Bing logo used until September 2013

Second Bing logo used from 2013 until 2016

Microsoft recognised that there would be a problem with branding as long as the
word "Live" remained in the name.[16] As an effort to create a new identity for
Microsoft's search services, Live Search was officially replaced by Bing on June
3, 2009.[17]
The Bing name was chosen through focus groups, and Microsoft decided that the
name was memorable, short, easy to spell, and that it would function well as a
URL around the world. The word would remind people of the sound made during
"the moment of discovery and decision making."[18] Microsoft was assisted by
branding consultancy Interbrand in their search for the best name for the new
search engine.[19] The name also has strong similarity to the word 'bingo', which is
used to mean that something sought has been found or realized, as is interjected
when winning the game Bingo. Microsoft advertising strategist David Webster
originally proposed the name "Bang" for the same reasons the name Bing was
ultimately chosen (easy to spell, one syllable, and easy to remember). He noted,
"It's there, it's an exclamation point [...] It's the opposite of a question mark." This
name was ultimately not chosen because it could not be properly used as a verb
in the context of an internet search; Webster commented "Oh, 'I banged it' is very
different than 'I binged it'".[20]
According to the Guardian "[Microsoft] hasn't confirmed that it stands
recursively for Bing Is Not Google, but that's the sort of joke software engineers
enjoy."[21] Qi Lu, president of Microsoft Online Services, also announced that
Bing's official Chinese name is bì yìng (simplified Chinese: 必应; traditional
Chinese: 必應), which literally means "very certain to respond" or "very certain to
answer" in Chinese.[22]
While being tested internally by Microsoft employees, Bing's codename
was Kumo (くも),[23] which came from the Japanese word for spider (蜘蛛; くも
, kumo) as well as cloud (雲; くも, kumo), referring to the manner in which
search engines "spider" Internet resources to add them to their database, as well
as cloud computing.
Legal challenges
On July 31, 2009, The Laptop Company, Inc. stated in a press release that it
would challenge Bing's trademark application, alleging that Bing may cause
confusion in the marketplace as Bing and their product BongoBing both do online
product search.[24] Software company TeraByte Unlimited, which has a product
called BootIt Next Generation (abbreviated to BING), also contended the
trademark application on similar grounds, as did a Missouri-based design
company called Bing! Information Design.[25]
Microsoft contended that claims challenging its trademark were without merit
because these companies filed for U.S. federal trademark applications only after
Microsoft filed for the Bing trademark in March 2009.[26]
Yahoo! search deal
On July 29, 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that they had made a ten-
year deal in which the Yahoo! search engine would be replaced by Bing,
retaining the Yahoo! user interface. Yahoo! will get to keep 88% of the revenue
from all search ad sales on its site for the first five years of the deal, and have the
right to sell advertising on some Microsoft sites.[27][28] All Yahoo! Search global
customers and partners made the transition by early 2012.[7]