Details about Kumo emerged in an internal memo that was leaked on Monday. Satya Nadella, head of research at Microsoft's online services division, sent the memo via e-mail Monday afternoon with the subject line "Internal Search Test Experience." The memo was first made public on The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog.

"The search team needs you," Nadella wrote. "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."

Microsoft Sees Opportunity

Nadella's memo continued with some compelling statistics. According to his research, in spite of the progress made by search engines, 40 percent of queries go unanswered. What's more, he reported, half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks and 46 percent of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. His conclusion: Customers often don't find what they need from search.

"We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you'll see results organized in a way that saves you more time," Nadella wrote. "An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions."

Nadella then points employees to Kumo.com and asks them to begin using it for their searches. He called his recipients some of the company's most informed users and toughest critics and said he values the input and feedback.

Does Microsoft Stand a Search Chance?

Microsoft has a long way to go to catch up with Google, or even Yahoo. Google sites led the U.S. core search market in December with 63 percent of searches conducted, according to comScore. Yahoo followed at a distant second at 21 percent. Microsoft sites had 8.5 percent, AOL about four percent and Ask 3.7 percent.

Despite Microsoft's uphill climb, Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said it's important for Microsoft to establish and maintain relationships with its customers, and search is a vital platform. He points back to the 1990s, when companies warred over who would control browser market share. Microsoft dominated the battle, but then along came Google with an innovative approach to search that supplanted the browser as the primary contact point between vendors and consumers. King said the battle is far from over.

"There was a point where Internet Explorer owned 90-plus percent of the browser market. Then Mozilla Firefox came along and took away a quarter of Microsoft's lunch money in the browser space. So the concept of Google being unassailable or unbeatable is frankly ludicrous," King said.

"Mozilla proved that if you came out with a better browser you could take a significant amount of share away from an invincible market leader," he added. "I expect that in some point in the future some up-and-coming innovator, and it could be Microsoft, will challenge Google effectively."