Microsoft Nova's Their Bing

[peristaltor]

Ah, you can't get away from Microsoft's promotion of their new search engine Bing, can you? According to Patrick Cox of PRI's The World in Words podcast, Microsoft's Chief Exec hoped the name would "verb up," presumably to become a verb much as Google has over the years

Comments

[olego]

To be honest, I stopped worrying about that after I realized that names aren't as powerful as the product. Nintendo's choice of the "Wii" trademark was ridiculed for about a month, but it went on to become an incredibly popular console. Same with Bee-ing, or however MS is trying to get people to pronounce it in China: Give it another month, and if the search engine is good, the word will stick.

[peristaltor]

The difference with the Wii is the simple fact that the word meant nothing, unlike Bing and, from previous decades, the Chevy Nova. The simple fact that Mandarin speakers (I presume it's from Mandarin) can conflate the engine with a sickness -- nay, even a virus -- might be all the coincidence needed.