Microsoft has taken the covers off its latest attempt at overhauling Google in the search was. Microsoft Live Search will be rebranded as Bing.

Promising to make searching faster and easier, the company is initially gunning for Yahoo’s market share, which is estimated to stand at about 20% in the US, with Microsoft back on 8.2%. Google currently claims about 64% of US search traffic.

US users should see Bing in all its glory on Wednesday, June 3. UK users can expect a beta version at the same time. The fact that the announcement was made before the product was available for people to use could turn out to be a big mistake by Microsoft, according to RedMonk analyst James Governor.

“I am frankly stunned that Microsoft announced Bing without making it generally available at the same time. It’s not as if this was the announcement of a new operating system roadmap. Bing may or may not be awesome – I haven’t actually used it yet because it’s not available,” he told CBR.

“But why not launch it on the web, let people find it and play with it, and create buzz if the experience is good? That’s the internet way. Sometimes with Microsoft you feel the Procter and Gamble marketing alumni have got carried away,” Governor said.

Microsoft says it is hoping to make search results more relevant – the company’s own research found that a large percentage of search queries are not answered by the current generation of search engines.

“40% of search queries go unanswered. There is something missing here and a big consumer need. We can see it in the logs [of searches]. When searching using existing search engines I have to keep re-querying things – adding more words, clicking on a site, going back because it is not the right site, and ultimately abandoning their queries,” The BBC quotes Paul Stoddart, Microsoft UK search lead, as saying.

Microsoft is aiming to make search results smarter. According to a report in The Guardian, a search for Wimbledon will return different results during the tennis season than the same query would if made at Christmas.

A search for flight information will reveal schedules and times as well as results for local hotels and weather information.

Reports earlier this week suggested that Microsoft was looking to spend $80m – $100m promoting the revamp. “All in all I think the marketing approach didn’t match the real goals. Microsoft won’t win through flashy product launches- it will win through quality user experiences,” Governor said.