An email sent to employees on Monday afternoon reveals Microsoft is conducting an internal test of Kumo, the rebranded version if its Live Search product.

""Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days," wrote SVP-R&D Satya Nadella of Microsoft's online services division.

Kumo means "cloud" or "spider" in Japanese. It is currently a code name for the test and will likely not be retained if the product ever goes public. The rationale for the revamped search offering follows:

"In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40% of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46% of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes," wrote Nadella.

"These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don't find what they need from search today. We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks."

Kumo differentiates itself from other search engines in that it organizes its results in a way that saves users time. For example, an explorer pane to the left-hand side of results provides tools that enable users to complete tasks. Single session history and hover preview aim to help users do more with a search.

Microsoft employees that test Kumo will be invited to provide feedback on their overall experience. There is currently no date for public release, reports MediaPost.

Live Search currently powers sites like Facebook. It the press, it is best-known by Microsoft's attempt to foist use of it onto users by incentivizing the experience — as opposed to improving it.