Rumors abound on the Internet that Microsoft intends to rebrand and relaunch Windows Live Search. The rumor mill had been going on about Redmond changing the brand name for Live Search, and LiveSide.Net reports that Microsoft has registered a domain name called Kumo.com and is testing it by directing internal traffic to it.

The site, rebranded, is allegedly going to launch next year. The information comes from a TechCrunch report citing an internal source. The source says that few people within Microsoft actually know the name of the new brand, and that could change as well.

Kumo is therefore not sure to be Microsoft’s new search brand, but the evidence certainly points to an effort by the company to pump some new life into its search enterprise after abandoning the idea of acquiring Yahoo.

Nevertheless, Microsoft has recently acquired search talent from Yahoo, and is using it to boost their search effort. Thursday Microsoft announced that it had hired Sean Suchter, Yahoo’s former search executive as general manager of Microsoft's Silicon Valley Search Technology Center.

TechCrunch’s report also shows that unfortunately for Microsoft, their rebranding plans include turning Live.com into a purely social network and separating its search as Kumo (a Japanese word that means ‘cloud’ or ‘spider’) thus splitting its brand and not sticking to one product. This may cause the same problems now as it has in the past – see the cornucopia of names: Windows, Windows Live, Live, Hotmail, MSN, Windows Live Search – and now adding another one may confuse users even further. It remains to be seen what Microsoft will pull out of their hats to catch up from its long-held third place position in the search market.