Is KUMO going to be Microsoft’s new search engine brand?
That’s what some tech bloggers are wondering.
What’s cool is they confirmed their hunch by mining the WHOIS database of domain name registrations and found that Microsoft has amassed a number of KUMO-related domain names.
Seattle technology writer Todd Bishop dug a little deeper. In a post published yesterday in TechFlash, he noted that in August someone named Dascar Samira Facendo from Venezuela filed an intent-to-use application to register KUMO for “computer services, namely, providing search engines for obtaining data on a global computer network.”
That’s quite a coincidence, unless Sr. Facendo is somehow related to Microsoft.
I ran his name through the PTO’s TESS database for clues. I struck out — this is Sr. Facendo’s only application.
I then ran his name through Google and found he is the administrative contact for the domain name edu.edu. The only page associated with that domain name has a picture and quote from Albert Einstein. The registrant is “Escolas e Universidades Chaves,” which Babel Fish tells me means something to the effect of “Key Schools and Universities” in Portuguese. Yes, they speak Spanish in Venezuela, but the only decent translation I could find was from Portuguese.
So is this gentleman a squatter? If so, how’d he know five months ago that Microsoft might become interested in this mark?
All of this raises more questions than answers. But they’re good questions.
I’m psyched bloggers are using our tools of the trade to get ahead of a story. This is exciting stuff.