I have a theory regarding Google and Microsoft. The two technology giants are often pitted against one another, and hey, you have to admit it’s fun to do. Will Google make inroads on the desktop? Will Microsoft win the battle for Internet search? And on, and on. Ignoring how silly it is to need to declare a winner, here’s my theory: Microsoft is going to win, and their technology won’t be the reason.
Consider for example this article in The Register:
“Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story,” noted reporter Elinor Mills here.
Google isn’t alone in amassing one of the world’s largest databases of personal information and behavior – as Yahoo! and Microsoft have too. But the retaliation against the news site is only likely to focus more attention to Google’s often contemptuous attitude to press and analyst scrutiny (on its first ever financial analyst day the company offered its chef, but not its CFO) and puts its privacy issues firmly in the spotlight.
I would argue that the best thing to happen to Microsoft in the last few years was the major anti-trust trial. Since that major public relations debacle, Microsoft has become much more friendly. They have become a kinder giant. The things Google is accused of doing in the above article sound like something the Microsoft of old might have done.
And therein lies the reason I think Microsoft is going to prevail. They’re still as cutthroat as ever, and yet they’ve learned to be come across as anything but. Google, on the other hand, needs to have its hubris checked, and I think Microsoft is just the company to do so. If Google doesn’t make some changes, Microsoft is going to clobber them in the eyes of the public, not to mention in the eyes of the media.
And if recent tools like MSN Search and Virtual Earth are any indication, Microsoft will nail Google on technology too.
Read: The Register
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