Microsoft is temporarily ending its Search And Give program, a site that sought to boost usage of its Live Search engine by donating a penny per search to an organization of the user's choice.
More significant, perhaps, is the date it will end: June 1. It's the latest piece of evidence suggesting that the long-awaited revamp of Microsoft's Live Search engine, code-named Kumo, is coming early next month.
"We are revising this program to improve the user experience and plan to release an updated version in the coming months," the company says on an FAQ page about the program.
What does this say about broader plans for a Live Search overhaul? "We have nothing additional to announce today about upcoming plans for Live Search," a Microsoft representative said in response to that question. "With Live Search, we are hard at work on understanding consumer needs and are increasingly finding big opportunities to advance the value that search engines are missing."
Microsoft has been testing an overhauled version of its third-place search engine under the internal code name Kumo, although it hasn't yet said whether that will be the final name. Earlier this week, LiveSide.net pointed to a Neowin forum post about Kumo clock at Microsoft counting down to June 2, suggesting that's when the new search engine will be launched.
The Search And Give site says it has donated more than $536,000 since September 2007.
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