Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

Whenever one of the big tech co’s does something even remotely of interest, and even more often when it’s under the radar, the tech blogs light up with speculation and criticism instantly. Even when it’s as insubstantial as the Microsoft Bing.com team’s recent internal use of their new Binged.It URL shortener.

Microsoft seems far less
concerned with an extra
character in their URL
shortener, or even the
prospect of using a truly
short URL than they are
about building a solid and
recognizable brand around
the Bing product.

The service isn’t yet public, and for all we know, it may never be. But with URL shortening becoming commonplace and creating some interesting business opportunities – tracking audience interest for example – it would be surprising if the Google’s, YouTube’s, and Microsoft’s weren’t exploring the space with some level of interest.

Microsoft’s Binged.It URL shortener caught some heat recently on TechCrunch.com, with the blog and most of the commenters jumping all over the fact that Bing’s short URL (Binged.It – 8 characters) is longer than the service’s main URL (Bing.com – 7 characters). Fair point, considering a URL shortener should, er, shorten a URL, right?!

With the original TinyURL.com, which seems to have lost much of its following, to Bit.ly providing shortening complete with analytics, the even shorter Is.gd, and the ridiculously short to. (which doesn’t even seem like a possible URL), there’s clearly plenty of options for this kind of service, and plenty of approaches to applying the short URL service to other forms of technology and interaction.

So, back to Microsoft and my perspective on why they would make their URL shortener longer than their Bing service’s URL. Seems pretty clear that this is completely a branding play. Microsoft seems far less concerned with an extra character in their URL shortener, or even the prospect of using a truly short URL (think Bi.ng or even Bing.it the later of which they seem to already own) than they are about building a solid and recognizable brand around the Bing product. Microsoft has quite literally rebranded their search engine from Live.com to Bing.com, and a rebrand (a smart and thorough one anyway) goes far beyond the name and logo, and into the way a product fits into the vocabulary of not only its users (or customers) but those that may be on the periphery too.

The same way that doing a search through Google has become ‘Googling’ or ‘Googled’, Microsoft is thinking about how to make Bing a household name so your mom, dad, grandma, aunt, nephew, or any other less technically savvy person will feel compelled to ditch Google and start using Bing. And eventually, the hope is that these same people start telling others that they too have ‘Binged it’. It sounds funny, it’s potentially catchy, and if it works, it’ll probably help increase their user-base in far shorter order than if they just stuck to engineering feats.

This is more likely than not a strategy coming out of their marketing department, possibly even fueled by the people at arms length from the technology within Bing’s advertising agency, JWT. Just wait until they start running ads that talk about ‘Binging It’. It might be a clever and edgy strategy that could get heaps of attention for Microsoft’s normally stale and safe brand, one that’s been historically adverse to marketing itself. But this is also a strategy that could potentially get really old, really fast.

Turning a technology service’s key feature into a verb that people will actually use is a hefty endeavor, but one that if successful could build longevity in the service and brand – in this case, one that Microsoft is putting plenty of time and dollars into. And in tech, every minute counts towards the longevity of a brand (just think, YouTube is only 5 years old!).

Bing really isn’t for TechCrunch.com readers anyhow. It’s not offering any real groundbreaking features that will appeal to this kind of audience. In fact, it doesn’t really do anything particularly significant that could make it stand out as a service – i mean, who’s really leaving their decision making to a search engine?! It’s being heavily marketed (on television even) to the mass market, efforts that are pushing the brand into the public psyche which is clearly a smart strategy. And if it works, it could be a huge win for Microsoft; it could be the magic ingredient for Bing to gain traction and the public’s attention. Let’s face it, there never really was anything particularly interesting to say about using Live.com for search, but mark my words, your mom and dad will be telling you about how they Binged.It very soon.

Now, only if the Bing interface and logo weren’t so hideous.

Follow me on Twitter here: @mrstephenbeck

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