I frequently write about Microsoft’s boring and confusing product brand names. Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 7, Windows 8, and so on, and so on, and so on. There is no differentiation, the packaging is equally confusing, and yet it never improves.
Enter Bing.
Microsoft’s new search engine actually has a name that doesn’t include any numbers and can stand alone without “Microsoft” in front of it. That’s a step in the right direction, but we can probably stop there. Somehow the creativity that was allowed in creating the application’s name did not follow through to the logo design.
My first three thoughts upon seeing the new Bing logo:
- Seriously? That’s all they could come up with?
- Is that how it’s supposed to look? Did this image get stretched horizontally accidentally?
- I’m surprised the dot over the ‘i’ isn’t a little smiley face.
Don’t get me wrong. I much prefer a simple logo to a busy, “Web 2.0” logo. However, this is perhaps a bit too plain. Maybe I’d feel differently if I wasn’t so turned off by that font and the unnecessary stretching of it.
Something must be working though, because news today says that Bing has surpassed Yahoo! to become the second most used search engine behind the almighty Google.
So what do you think about the new Bing logo? Love it? Hate it? Take the poll below and share your opinion.
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
This is the worst logo that i saw in my whole life. Unmatching colors, unnecessary horizontal scaling. Who the hell was approve this crap i can’t understand really