Why do they think we want a big, dramatic image as a background to our search page?

The logo is a good inasmuch as it departs from typical Microsoft logos, BUT it's still ugly.

Especially since it's not live, all we have are these 1st impressions. And frankly the design choices are lame. Will this have an impact on it's success?

Well, I like it. My wife would use it as well. Perhaps they're not targeting the Hacker News demographic?

Sorry, I don't get what you mean. How is the Bing logo "over dramatic"?

The logo isn't over dramatic. The lame full-screen pictures behind the initial search screen.