5 ms·

I think no matter how hard Microsoft tries to beat Google at their game, it's not going to happen. Google has held the upper hand since day one. It's obvious th

I think no matter how hard Microsoft tries to beat Google at their game, it's not going to happen. Google has held the upper hand since day one. It's obvious they know the pressure points to their own company and they sure know what to do when someone thinks about beating them at their own game. Microsoft is making the mistake of trying to beat giants in one market when they are already a giant in their own. I'm not sure how Microsoft wants to play, but I am certain this isn't going to turn out like a David vs. Goliath.

aston 19y ago
You don't have to be the #1 player in a market to make tons of money from it. If Microsoft's advertising wing made a tenth of what Google makes, they'd be pretty happy.
- xirium 19y ago
  You don't have to be top to be profitable but there are disproportionate rewards from being top.
watmough 19y ago
Yeah, I posted the above, but I don't believe that current management at MS has a prayer on executing successfully on anything different or new. I sure that there are factions within MS that viewed the obvious lock-in of Sharepoint as the great white hope that would roll back the internet threat and safely lock the 'intranetwork' to MS. Well, they can forget that, except for a few of the 'large client' sheep. It seems like any new interesting project is always 'Skunkworks'ed, thinking of XBox, Zune, MS Research - "The Project formerly known as 'Half the World's Smartest Researchers (Being Paid not to work ((At Google)))"', LOL. I really mean 'why', just why are they bothering with Yahoo? I mean, they will just run it into the ground. The "Next Great Idea" (tm), the next Facebook, the next You Tube, the next Slashdot is probably swiftly exiting Yahoo as we speak.
- mooneater 19y ago
  MS Research is completely separate from the product teams. Researchers seem disdainful of product team folks, and vice-versa. One time over lunch I asked a technical manager about the role of theory in our work. His response: "Remember that time we had a guy with a phD in our group? We wasted so much time on theory and did nothing practical". Everyone laughed, and promptly changed the topic. Another time I had an interview with their search engine team. I ended up in a fairly heated argument with the interviewer about where innovation comes from. Her contention was that Research should do all the innovating, and throw the innovations over the wall to product teams, and product teams obediently implement. Which I said was... less than ideal. "No hire" =) Seems to me in Google, product people and theory people are tight, or even the same people. MS's schism approach will never touch that.
- jimbokun 19y ago
  "I really mean 'why', just why are they bothering with Yahoo?" Anyone else old enough to remember Novell combining with WordPerfect way back when to take on Microsoft? You'd think Ballmer, having been through that on the winning side would know better.

aston 19y ago

You don't have to be the #1 player in a market to make tons of money from it. If Microsoft's advertising wing made a tenth of what Google makes, they'd be pretty happy.

xirium 19y ago
You don't have to be top to be profitable but there are disproportionate rewards from being top.

watmough 19y ago

Yeah, I posted the above, but I don't believe that current management at MS has a prayer on executing successfully on anything different or new. I sure that there are factions within MS that viewed the obvious lock-in of Sharepoint as the great white hope that would roll back the internet threat and safely lock the 'intranetwork' to MS. Well, they can forget that, except for a few of the 'large client' sheep. It seems like any new interesting project is always 'Skunkworks'ed, thinking of XBox, Zune, MS Research - "The Project formerly known as 'Half the World's Smartest Researchers (Being Paid not to work ((At Google)))"', LOL. I really mean 'why', just why are they bothering with Yahoo? I mean, they will just run it into the ground. The "Next Great Idea" (tm), the next Facebook, the next You Tube, the next Slashdot is probably swiftly exiting Yahoo as we speak.

mooneater 19y ago
MS Research is completely separate from the product teams. Researchers seem disdainful of product team folks, and vice-versa. One time over lunch I asked a technical manager about the role of theory in our work. His response: "Remember that time we had a guy with a phD in our group? We wasted so much time on theory and did nothing practical". Everyone laughed, and promptly changed the topic. Another time I had an interview with their search engine team. I ended up in a fairly heated argument with the interviewer about where innovation comes from. Her contention was that Research should do all the innovating, and throw the innovations over the wall to product teams, and product teams obediently implement. Which I said was... less than ideal. "No hire" =) Seems to me in Google, product people and theory people are tight, or even the same people. MS's schism approach will never touch that.
jimbokun 19y ago
"I really mean 'why', just why are they bothering with Yahoo?" Anyone else old enough to remember Novell combining with WordPerfect way back when to take on Microsoft? You'd think Ballmer, having been through that on the winning side would know better.