http://www.pcworld.com/article/158254/microsoft_to_merge_windows_live_and_office_live.html

It’s been reported that Microsoft (MSFT) is going to rebrand both of its Windows Live and Office Live services under the name of Kumo. Apparently, “kumo” is Japanese for “cloud” or “sea spider”, inter alia. The company filed a trademark application for Kumo on December 04, 2008. It has also bought a couple of domains that will be pointing to the new site. First and foremost, they bought the four-letter domain Kumo.com, which was originally registered in 1996. Microsoft also bought and registered KumoSearch.com, KumoWiki.com, KumoPics.com, KumoGroups.com and KumoTravel.com.

Microsoft’s online software business has been struggling for a while and is facing increasing competition from Google’s line of online office software. The Windows Live and Office Live brand has never been a success, so rebranding may be a good decision, especially since MSFT is now going to merge most of its online services and its Live.com search engine under one name. However, whether Kumo is a good name remains to be seen. I’ve actually liked Live.com very much, and I still think it’s better than Kumo. Both are short names, but “live” is an actual word that I think has a lot of branding potential. I don’t think that completely moving away from that brand will do any good. Why does Microsoft not concentrate on merging its online products and keep the Live.com brand instead of dumping it for a typical Web 2.0 start-up name?

Anyway, there seems to be increasing demand for short four-letter brands, which will be music in the ears of the owners of four-letter domain names. Hulu, Wiki, Kumo, Fusu and others… Short seems to be good.