Bing and Decide?

This past week it was revealed that Microsoft is trying to determine what the brand positioning for Bing should be.

In June 2009, Microsoft launched a slew of commercials and positioning that positions Microsoft as a "decision engine" not a "search engine". Any consumer knows that any search result yields a lot of information. Google has an enormous footprint on the search market and Bing has a much smaller share. It makes sense that Bing tried to differentiate itself and tried to assist consumers in making purchasing decisions. And, as a consumer, I'd actually have to agree then when searching to make a product purchase I did find Bing to be more helpful that Google.

Clearly the debate over calling Bing a decision engine gives us some insight into the minds of top executives. It sounds like their strategy is not paying off enough in dividends. Maybe they realized how much money is on the table and how they aren't a large enough share. Or maybe the Yahoo! and Bing merger didn't go as smoothly as planned. So now, executives but decide what to do-- keep the old branding or develop new brand positioning. Wouldn't it be nice if they could just "bing and decide"... or maybe google will provide a better answer.

For more on the article: http://adage.com/article/digital/microsoft-s-bing-ax-decision-engine-positioning/230011/