Live Search to get a Rebrand?

Seems like every time we mention Microsoft's Live Services here we always start with the complaint that the branding is confusing, mixed, and/or just plain wacky. There's been a plan in the works since at least February to rebrand some of these services to clear up just what refers to what. According to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, that plan is still in motion.

First up, Live Search, Microsoft's straight-up search competitor to Google. It looks like Microsoft has begun asking users what they think of several new names, the leading contenders being:

• Bing
• Hook
• Kumo (which means either “cloud” or “spider” in Japanese, depdnding on which Kanji characters are used)

Again, these are being floated strictly (we think) to rebrand the actual Search in Live Search and not necessarily the Live Search client, Live Mesh (Mac client for that is out now, by the way), or any of the other various services called “Live” out there. Ok, honestly we don't know, but that's our best guess. What we do know is that the URLs for all of the above are already taken and, really, it wouldn't exactly be a tragedy if Microsoft went another direction. Then again, they're all better than “Cuil.”

Here's our suggestion: Wythwo. As in: “Wish (that) Yahoo Thing Had Worked Out.”