Link This |
Email this |
Blog This |
Comments (0)
BEA 2009: Bing on Bing - Larry Hughes
May 29, 2009
On this, the first day of BEA, the New York Times reports that Microsoft has launched a new internet search service called Bing.
Bing? Really?
My first impulse was to check in with Fortune Magazine columnist Stanley Bing, the author of Crazy Bosses, Executricks, and several other bestselling business humor books. As it turns out, Bing had already issued a press release expressing “moderate outrage” at this “unprecedented case of brand intrusion,” pointing out that he has been cultivating the Bing brand since 1983, while Microsoft “has been establishing the Bing brand for about seventeen minutes.”
Soon as I arrived at the show, I caught up with Bing and asked him a few questions.
Q: What did you think of former marketing guru for Coca-Cola Peter Sealey's quote in today's New York Times: "Bing has no equity; it signals nothing."
A: That's why he's a FORMER marketing guru. Besides, I question the entire notion of a marketing guru. Put on your hat and you're a marketing guru.
Q: What do you think of Bing becoming a verb (as in "If you need the answer, just bing it")? Shouldn't bing the verb connote something dirty?
A: I've been Binging for years, both appropriately and, for a time during the 1990s, in a less salubrious way. There's no question it's a good verb. I also think it's a pretty fair adjective, as in, "That's a very Bing dress you're wearing, Monica," and not a bad adverb, either, as in, "I ate the steak quite Bingly." I hope I'm using those parts of speech correctly. I'd hate to Bing up in this crowd.
Q: Have you considered the possibility of your picture serving as the Bing logo on their search page (seasonally adjusted of course, e.g. Sporting a Santa hat at Christmas or a cloud of hearts at Valentine's Day?)
A: Yes, I have. I hope they're considering it at this moment as well.
Q: If Bing initiates a Bing Book Search (a la Google Book Search) should it be limited to just your books?
A: Good idea. In fact, all Binging aside, I'm concerned about the search issues associated with this brand grab. Now if you search "Bing" you get a bunch of peripheral Bings -- Rudolf, Bada, Steve, the cherry -- but a lot of the time there I am, Stanley Bing, the true Bing, the first Bing among equals, riding high atop the Googlearium. Now what will pop up? A bunch of sales effluvia from the Empire? It's a question that keeps me up nights, as opposed to all the other things that keep me up nights.
Q: Anything else you want to say about this to the BEA crowd?
A: Let's have lunch.
Click here for more BookExpo America 2009 coverage from PW.
Posted by PW's BEA Bloggers on May 29, 2009 | Comments (0)
