Much in the same way that the word Kleenex has become synonymous
with facial tissue from all brands, and Tivo has done the same for DVRs, so has
Google become the de facto standard term used to describe an Internet search.
Just “Google it,” you’ll often hear people say. Ever since 1998, Google has
been the search engine of choice for many (myself included), much to the
chagrin of former search titans like Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, and Ask Jeeves.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft also jumped into the game in
1998 with MSN Search. This later became the horribly named Windows Live Search,
then just Live Search. I suspect one day someone at Microsoft with some guts
(and influence) must have finally said “this is just stupid; we need a catchy
name and unique features.” And so it was that just over 10 years after their
failed attempts with MSN search, Bing was born in June of 2009.
