Binging on search by design

Microsoft has put great stock in a name — and hopes its new search engine Bing will become a verb as well as a noun.

Qi Lu, president of Microsoft Online Services, says the name was chosen specifically so that it could make the liguistic transition.

"A lot of times on the internet, with increasing usage and popularity, things become a verb," Dr Lu said.

Bing's main competitor, Google, has been extensively "verbed" and appears in most dictionaries as a verb with a lower-case "g".

"To google" is defined as "to search for on the internet".

It was a requirement of Micosoft's own search for a brand name that it too could make the leap to be "a doing word".

"That was actually one of the selection criteria," Dr Lu said.

"That the word was very short, and very crisp, so it could easily become a verb.

"We have a very high degree of confidence in what our product will be able to deliver — the more a user uses it, the easier they will find it is to make decisions and find answers."

"Bing" also resonates with an audience Google is yet to dominate: China.

"The actual Chinese characters are two characters, 'Bi' and 'Ing' and combined these two characters mean 'very certain to respond' and 'very certain to answer'," Dr Lu said.

"That's a terrific representation of what our brand stands for in the Chinese language."

Microsoft is a 50 percent owner of ninemsn.