Microsoft Starts Testing Kumo

Microsoft has announced its begun limited public testing of its new search technology, Kumo.

For the last couple of months Microsoft has been conducting internal testing of Kumo, its new search technology. Now, according to CNET, the company has started some limited public testing of Kumo.

Ryan Rea said that using Live Search and Internet Explorer 8 he got results that looked like Kumo, not Microsoft’s regular search, with the left-hand navigation frame particularly different. Microsoft confirmed what Rea had seen.

In a statement, the company said:

"We are continuously looking for ways to improve Live Search for both advertisers and consumers. As part of that effort, we regularly conduct public tests of certain feature sets. This is an example of one such test with a very limited audience."

Kumo is the current name for the rebranding of Microsoft Search. It’s expected to include semantic search technology, which came to Microsoft when it purchased Powerset. But it will need to give the company a big boost, as it trails behind Yahoo and Google in the search stakes.