by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/01/02 09:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/01/02/10252287.aspx
Offtopic. Very offtopic. In fact, as offtopic as you can get without a prescription!
Some questions I get entertain, some amuse, and some I just don't know what exactly to do with.
But this one kind of takes the cake!
I know you've written about porn in the past, so I thought you might have insight into the connection between the search engine Bing and star Carmella Bing?
Well, it is perhaps a bit of an overstatement.
Over the last few years, it has been limited to just a few blogs, pretty much always related to linguistic issues like in Somewhere between a glossary and a lexicon, safe[ enough] for work and On the [pragmatic?] pronunciation of "XXX".
Hardly a dedicated blog category, if you know what I mean!
Anyway, I've never met Carmella Bing, or seen her in action, as it were.
I've talked to some people who know her and they she is a very nice person.
owever, according to the IAFD website ( NTSFW link here), her career began in 2006. And the Bing search engine started up in 2009 according to Wikipedia.
Clearly, her name was not inspired by the Microsoft web site.
It also seems highly unlikely to me that the Bing Decision Engine was inspired by the adult actress.
The few people I know over there who I asked were at best amused, but everyone was sure it was just a coincidence.
Back in 2009, I vaguely recall a Reddit thread about How long before Microsoft sues pornstar Carmella Bing? as well as a few similar blogs, which I only mention here so that the person who asked me doesn't think the name issue hadn't ever occurred to anyone else.
She still has her stage name, and the Decision Engine didn't rename itself.
In the end, sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar. And a Bing is just a Bing....
John Cowan on 2 Jan 2012 10:02 AM:
As Robert Picardo (the actor who played the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager) said to TV Guide, "I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I'm asked to comtemplate the cosmic connection between Picard and Picardo."
r on 2 Jan 2012 11:17 AM:
Bing always suggests Crosby to me. How long before you guys sue him? :)
asf on 2 Jan 2012 2:57 PM:
Mrs Carmella Soprano + The Bada Bing Club is probably the origin. She used to escort in LV IIRC, was part of the HIV scare, got pregnant, got fat(ish), semi returned to porn. If only I could trade in my pron knowledge for some unicode knowledge =)
Michael S. Kaplan on 2 Jan 2012 8:32 PM:
I'm not sure what that exchange would look like!
interior design on 3 Jan 2012 2:08 PM:
nice article.