The software giant has confirmed its search engine will be re-named “Bing” and re-launched by Thursday next week, backed by a $US100m re-branding campaign.

But Steve Ballmer is downbeat about its immediate prospects.

Microsoft is in the final stages of deciding between two names for its search engine. The winner will be backed by a $US100 million brand campaign.

From leaked memos and employee blog posts, it seems Microsoft is now trialling a new-and-improved version of its search engine, Live.

According to figures released today by web traffic tracker Hitwise, Google is even more dominant in New Zealand than it is globally – and its dominance is growing.

For the 12 weeks to December 27, Hitwise says Google.com and Google.co.nz accounted for 92.27% of all New Zealand searches – a 2.68% increase on six months ago that will further feed the company’s already huge lead in search word advertising.