Micosoft begins process of testing Kumo.com

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp has begun the process of testing a revamped version of its Internet search service Kumo.com as the software giant tries to improve its third-place position in the online search market, a media report said on Tuesday.

In an email sent on Monday afternoon to all Microsoft employees, Satya Nadella, Senior Vice-President of research and development for Microsoft's online services division, invited staffers to begin testing the Kumo search engine, currently only available on the company's internal network, the Wall Street Journal reported.

For now, Microsoft's Live Search, at live.com, remains the company's search engine for the public.

A person familiar with the matter was quoted as saying that Microsoft hasn't decided yet whether to rebrand Live Search as Kumo, which Nadella refers to as a code name in his email.

Kumo in Japanese means spider, a reference to so-called spider software that crawls from website to website, adding the data to vast search-engine indexes, the paper said.

Speculation, the paper said, has long swirled on the Internet that Microsoft would use the Kumo name for its search engine after it was discovered that the company had ownership of the Kumo.com address.