Microsoft Thursday unveiled its long-awaited search engine -- formerly known as Kumo, now known as Bing -- at the D: All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touting Bing as a platform for smarter, deeper search beyond what its biggest rivals, including Google, have to offer. Bing will be available to the general public starting June 3.

According to Microsoft, Bing replaces its Live Search brand. In addition, a number of its platforms, such as its Virtual Earth mapping, will be rebranded as Bing functions, in that case Big Maps for Enterprise. Microsoft is going to need a lot more than a rebranding effort, however, to gain back some of Google's massive search market share -- 64.2 percent in the U.S. Vs. Microsoft's paltry 8.2 percent, according to April numbers released by ComScore.

Here are five elements of the forthcoming Bing that will give it the oomph it needs to compete:






1. Visual Presentation

Microsoft's July 2008 acquisition of Powerset, a developer of semantic search technology, gives it tools for a richer, more visually agreeable search presentation than the usual digest of blue links from Google or Yahoo.

2. Keywords Help

As search words are being typed into Bing, the Bing search function offers keywords to help users narrow their searches. If Microsoft can improve these keywords so they go beyond what Google offers with its Google Suggest, it can start to sound more realistic when it claims its a "smarter search."

3. Shop-'Til-You-Droppers and Hypochondriacs

The Bing platform breaks down into four broad categories: shopping, local, travel and health. If a user enters a search query under those categories, Bing brings back results relevant to them. For example, searching in the "shopping" category would bring back search results that include pricing and availability, and a search in the health category would find symptoms or medical research. For those who spend all their time clicking "Buy it" or freaking out about a tickle in their throat on WebMD, Microsoft might get them to where they want to go faster than Google.

4. Best Match, Instant Answers and Quick Preview

Microsoft is including a few sleek features that lend more immediacy to search, including Best Match, in which Bing collects relevant results and puts what it deems to be the most relevant search link right at the top. Similar to Google's "I Feel Lucky" search function, but if you didn't know what "I Feel Lucky" does before, you're not clicking it with the intent to use it properly. Instant Answers also takes up the "I Feel Lucky" mantle with a bit more clarity, offering single-click access to information listed in search results. Finally, Quick Preview allows a user to hover over a search result and see a text excerpt from the page of that result -- a look at the search result without actually having to click through it.

5. It's Microsoft

"Microsoft's secret sauce is its marketing savvy and its persistence," wrote Everything Channel Editor/News Steve Burke in a Wednesday blog post on ChannelWeb. "Remember, there were a few people who believed Netscape was invincible until Microsoft focused all its guns on blowing the onetime browser pioneer out of the water."