As in the case of people, brands tell so much more about themselves through their behavior rather than through their looks. A salient, unfolding example is Microsoft's impending launch of its new search engine, Kumo.
But there's a great point made here about Kumo (and the myriad of other search engines): what will we do with more of them? If Microsoft is trying to beat Google at their own game, I too believe they will lose, even if their new search engine is comparable or even slightly better than the current Google.com. The Redmond Goliath has it in its genes (remember old tricks played on IBM and Apple, as well as the crushing of Netscape, in more recent times) but has since long forgotten it's easier to do it when you're David. It sorely needs to change the game not for survival (I think it'll be around for decades from now), but for the kind of mental and technological edge that would make it perennially valuable to shareholders and employees alike.
What Microsoft needs Kumo to be is nothing short of disruptive. And at the same time, humble and meek so it stays out of the radar screen of industry hegemons while it grows. I'm not sure Microsoft can pull that kind of trick. Recent hardware-focused ad blitz notwithstanding, nothing in their recent corporate behavior has shown it can do it. What it should do, if it could, is to take a Benjamin Button-like trip back to its own youth and re-assess today from that standpoint.
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