Microsoft's Bing Challenge

Microsoft appears to realize the notion of tying the state of the search engine to the state of the economy may come across as being a bit questionable. One of the company's advertising managers is as saying the campaign was designed to "elicit an emotional response about a concept that, on its face, is decidedly not emotional."

That's not Microsoft's only challenge with selling Bing as the hot new thing -- there's also the issue that the general public doesn't appear to be terribly dissatisfied with its current search selection. Globally, Google commands a whopping 81.5 percent of the search market, according to recent data compiled by Web analytics company . Microsoft's search, in contrast, is hanging onto less than 3 percent of users worldwide. In the U.S., MS fares slightly less poorly: Its American search share was at 8.2 percent in April, metrics firm estimates, compared to Google's 64.2 percent.

So if couldn't convince crowds to leave the "G"-force behind (Microsoft's search share following the debut of its "Cashback" promotion last year), can a shiny new name and some forced emotion pull it off? Or could be enough to win Googlers over on their own?

Microsoft clearly believes there's hope. The company continues its push later this month with a new set of ads described as being more "humorous" than the initial effort. Hey, if they feature the return of the , I just might be willing to listen.