Microsoft.com as search brand?

Search engine guru Danny Sullivan today published an insightful analysis of Microsoft's long struggle in the Internet search business. The piece, Tough Love For Microsoft Search, offers a collection of possible remedies for the company in its battle with Google. One of them is particularly timely: Why doesn't the company just make Microsoft.com its primary search brand and portal?

As Sullivan notes, he's far from the first person to suggest this. But he makes a compelling case. And the idea is worth thinking about now, given reports that the company is thinking about switching its search brand to Kumo -- from the previous MSN Search, Windows Live Search and now Live Search.

Sullivan acknowledges that Microsoft has made Web search more prominent on Microsoft.com in recent months. But he suggests taking this to its logical conclusion, dropping altogether this "Live" business and using the Microsoft home page for search:

"The strongest universal brand that Microsoft has is its own name, “Microsoft.” Why doesn’t the company just go with this? Everyone knows Microsoft. It’s instantly recognizable. It has far more chance of winning than Live. ... Related to this, why doesn’t Microsoft show that it really is committed to winning the search wars by making probably the most substantial change it could do to boost traffic — drop virtually everything from the Microsoft.com home page except for a search box?"

It's a thought-provoking idea. Think of all the money the company would save not needing to build a new search brand completely from scratch. No doubt there would be divisional turf wars and other internal matters for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to weigh, but viewed from the outside, it seems like a no-brainer at this point. Doesn't it?