Practice Management

First, let me say that Future Lawyer has a new banner, and it is pretty cool.  Maybe Rick Georges' has had it for a while and I just did not notice it because I generally read his posts on my blog reader.  Anyway, it looks good Rick!

Second, Rick commented recently on the crazy new name chosen by Microsoft's for its new search engine, Bing.Com.  He hypothesized that maybe maybe Microsoft was trying to exploit the legend of the famous crooner, Bing Crosby.

I do not know if this is true, but it would tend to date Rick, Microsoft and me as I doubt most people who surf around are up on their Bing Crosby lore as someone like me that listen to crooner music all day while briefing responses to motions for summary judgment.

Maybe it would work in that Bing Crosby was one of the first multimedia stars from 1934 to 1954, but back then multimedia meant record sales (you know those black, circular, plastic-like things with groves in them), radio and motion pictures.

According to the Urban Dictionary "bing" means prison or jail, as you are going to bing.  And why not.  Sometimes being trapped in a search engine looking for something is like being in prison.

Oh, and then there is the Bada Bing! or the fictional go-go strip club and bar on the HBO drama The Sopranos.  Now, that would be something if the bar was the inspiration.  Use my search engine or a wack you!  Maybe forgetaboutit.com was taken.

There is the Bing Energy Drink.  Maybe they wanted to simulate this so someone could stay up all night surfing the net.  Lord know I am getting to old to do this anymore.

Whatever the motivation, I am glad to see bing advertising on Google.  What better way to get your name out there than paying your competitor to promote you.

When you go to the bing site the first thing you are met with are some pretty travel pictures.  And, they are nice, but I have to think, so what?  When I am using a search engine I really do not want to go there to be amazed by the cover art.  Sure, Google's little artwork is amusing, but it hardly dominates the page.  I have nothing against pretty pictures, but I go to a search engine to do work, to get somewhere, to figure something out, or to locate some despicable creditor to sue.  I really do not need to be distracted in this way.  Now pictures of women from the Bada Bing! would be a different story.

So, for now, I will stick with Google.  Besides, Google gives me a lot of free services.  But, I did have to see how many times my name came up on bing.  Just had to check.