In the headline, “binging” should be read to rhyme with “ringing,” not “cringing” – as in, making use of Microsoft’s new competitor to Google. It debuts next Wednesday (for some reason).

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told the Wall Street Journal that Bing was chosen as the name for the new search engine because it “works globally [and] doesn’t have negative connotations.”

True enough. “Bing” makes me think of Bing cherries, Bing Crosby, Chandler Bing, and ba-da-bing — all positives.  As a stand-alone it reminds me of a cross between “Boing!” and Southwest Airlines’ “Ding!” – both of which have a certain “come to attention” quality. So I guess that works with search.

In an early review, CNET gives Bing high marks for its ability to refine information and make it more immediately useful – as opposed to Google’s listier format.

This is becoming the driving force of information providers – taking all that info search engines initially placed at our fingertips and directing us to what we actually need.

It could be a life-saver for people who are curious-minded and prone to procrastination (speechwriters, for example). Anyone who’s looked for pictures of a Chevy Impala and ended up reading about antelopes for an hour knows that search engines can waste as much time as they save.

According to the Journal, Microsoft’s early Bing advertising zeroes in on this issue:

The premise of Bing’s ad push will be to highlight search overload. One of the humorous TV spots shows a woman asking her friend a question but her pal is unable to answer and begins to babble uncontrollably — a symptom of being exposed to too many search results, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The advertising had better be a hit, because Microsoft has a mountain to climb. Its search market share is currently 8%, versus Google’s 63%.

But Microsoft did redefine the word Windows for most of the world. It’s not hard to imagine they’ll soon have us Binging each other (and secretly Binging ourselves).