6 ms·

Can you elaborate on "constantly shifting the terms of engagement"?

• nailer 16y ago
  And explain which side is which?
  • stanleydrew 16y ago
    In my mind, Microsoft has to keep fighting this battle against Google, who gives away a product for free just so that the battle is waged on the web rather than on the desktop.
• stanleydrew 16y ago
  Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word constantly. But the way I see things Google isn't a software company. By that I mean Google doesn't sell software. Microsoft is very much a software company. They need Office and Windows to make money. Because Google isn't selling software, there isn't really any competition with Microsoft in the office productivity space. They're not fighting the same battle. Microsoft wants to make money from Office, while Google wants to encourage more applications and content onto the web. Do you think Google will be upset if Microsoft's docs.com is popular? The answer to that should tell you everything.
  • acg 16y ago
    There is more at stake than this. The danger for Google is that Microsoft controls the experience of most clients. If Microsoft's services become the standard then this cuts off Google's revenue and kills their business. It's easy to see what Microsoft would like, office online users to use Silverlight "for better rendering" which really means windows and ultimately IE. This matters to Google in the long term, hence their move into software/hardware to provide competition.