Microsoft Almost Chose The Name Bang Instead of Bing

Microsoft chief marketing strategist David Webster conducted an interview with CNET’s Ina Fried recently.  One of the goals he had when coming up with the word Bing is by making key products more “word-of-mouthable.”  Microsoft wanted a name that was one syllable, couldn’t be misspelled, and was as short as possible.  Webster was in charge of the new search engine name.

Webster told Fried that he initially came up with the word “Bang.”  ”It’s there, it’s an exclamation point,” said Webster. “It’s the opposite of a question mark.”  But when using the word “Bang” as a verb, it did not sound very pleasing.  ”Oh, I banged it’ is very different than ‘I binged it’,” added Webster. [CNET]