3 ms·

This is a bit of a naiive question, But what is the business rational behind Microsoft putting so much time and effort into IE? Where is the payback? Is it just

by cop359 16y ago

This is a bit of a naiive question, But what is the business rational behind Microsoft putting so much time and effort into IE? Where is the payback? Is it just so more people have Bing as their default search? Is it just so that Windows ships with a working modern browser as the user expects? If anyone could clear it up for me, Much appreciated =)

PakG1 16y ago
You could ask the same of Google and Chrome. An excellent treatise on the topic is discussed in Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft, by David Bank. It describes a lot of the tensions that existed inside Microsoft as they tried to figure out how to continue selling Windows as a platform, while still seeing the threat of the web as a platform on the horizon. IE was part of that threat response to stay in the game, ahead of the game, and in control of the game.
- cop359 16y ago
  Interesting point. However it seems like the only way to make big money on the internet is through advertisement and Google has that market locked up. Chrome is just another tool for their social data-mining. I'm sure they keep logs of what searches your IP has made (if you use Google Search), what emails you have read (if you use Gmail) and what websites you visit (through Chrome). If you sign up for any of their services then they can tie a name to an IP and then track what other computers you use (so they will know for instance that a work and home computers belong to the same person). This way they can profile people and then carefully target advertisement towards them. So then they funny result is that the more people use them the better they get; and the better they get, the more people use them. It's a perpetual motion machine, they feed on their own sucess so it almost seems impossible to catch up with them. So are you saying that microsoft is trying to replicate this with the Bing, IE, Live/Hotmail ? Clearly that won't be enough. They're gonna need a huge innovative breakthrough to win this battle...
  - PakG1 16y ago
    I'm not saying Microsoft is trying to replicate this at all. I would posit that Google came and broke the rules of the software industry and made new rules. Microsoft is trying to take the game back. They are admittedly trying to copy Google on a number of points, but who can truly know what Microsoft's end game is and what's going on in their heads except for Microsoft? One thing for sure, Google coming in and messing up the rules is directly attacking Microsoft's bread and butter: Office and Windows. That's where Microsoft makes most of their money, particularly Office. Google has docs, AppEngine, and more. For many mainstream people these days, the browser is the only thing that they need; Microsoft is still powerful, but if the trends continue, they'll be irrelevant. So I'm just claiming that Microsoft's trying to do what they can to rewrite the rules of the game again and take back control while they still have the resources to do so. It's a lot more urgent now than before, which is why Microsoft is so heavily and now visibly investing into things like mobile, cloud computing, and the like. The effort from Microsoft was always there before, but it always seemed half-hearted. 3 years ago, you never would have thought Microsoft would care about web standards to the extent that IE9 does. MS Office was still offline packaged software. Etcetera. Anyway, I highly recommend the book. It's a fascinating read.
- notahacker 16y ago
  Chrome is a thin client for using Google search (their UI has even removed he distinction between typing in URLs and searching Google). Microsoft is too encumbered by regulation to tie IE in closely with their core product; instead they're compelled to offer "browser choice", compelled to offer a startup wizard to help you set your search engine to Google, and incapable of effectively integrating the browser into products people actually pay money for. Even if they were capable of developing the sort of product that might be good enough to win market share back from competitors, I'm really not sure what sort of return they'd be getting in their investment in developing and promoting IE, over and above what they'd get bundling some rapidly-developed webkit-based browser with Windows 7 and leaving it at that.
- jcl 16y ago
  For that matter, you could ask the same of Google and Firefox. Google clearly thinks that being the default search provider is worth the cost of a browser (or two, in this case). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Notable_events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Notable_eve...
joesb 16y ago
As long as you can have significant number of users on your software, you can direct (or misdirect) the direction of that technology. Nobody knows how bigger the web browser is going to be, MS sure doesn't want to lose the power in influencing and ensuring that their other product stay relevant.

by cop359 16y ago

PakG1 16y ago

You could ask the same of Google and Chrome. An excellent treatise on the topic is discussed in Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft, by David Bank. It describes a lot of the tensions that existed inside Microsoft as they tried to figure out how to continue selling Windows as a platform, while still seeing the threat of the web as a platform on the horizon. IE was part of that threat response to stay in the game, ahead of the game, and in control of the game.

cop359 16y ago
Interesting point. However it seems like the only way to make big money on the internet is through advertisement and Google has that market locked up. Chrome is just another tool for their social data-mining. I'm sure they keep logs of what searches your IP has made (if you use Google Search), what emails you have read (if you use Gmail) and what websites you visit (through Chrome). If you sign up for any of their services then they can tie a name to an IP and then track what other computers you use (so they will know for instance that a work and home computers belong to the same person). This way they can profile people and then carefully target advertisement towards them. So then they funny result is that the more people use them the better they get; and the better they get, the more people use them. It's a perpetual motion machine, they feed on their own sucess so it almost seems impossible to catch up with them. So are you saying that microsoft is trying to replicate this with the Bing, IE, Live/Hotmail ? Clearly that won't be enough. They're gonna need a huge innovative breakthrough to win this battle...
- PakG1 16y ago
  I'm not saying Microsoft is trying to replicate this at all. I would posit that Google came and broke the rules of the software industry and made new rules. Microsoft is trying to take the game back. They are admittedly trying to copy Google on a number of points, but who can truly know what Microsoft's end game is and what's going on in their heads except for Microsoft? One thing for sure, Google coming in and messing up the rules is directly attacking Microsoft's bread and butter: Office and Windows. That's where Microsoft makes most of their money, particularly Office. Google has docs, AppEngine, and more. For many mainstream people these days, the browser is the only thing that they need; Microsoft is still powerful, but if the trends continue, they'll be irrelevant. So I'm just claiming that Microsoft's trying to do what they can to rewrite the rules of the game again and take back control while they still have the resources to do so. It's a lot more urgent now than before, which is why Microsoft is so heavily and now visibly investing into things like mobile, cloud computing, and the like. The effort from Microsoft was always there before, but it always seemed half-hearted. 3 years ago, you never would have thought Microsoft would care about web standards to the extent that IE9 does. MS Office was still offline packaged software. Etcetera. Anyway, I highly recommend the book. It's a fascinating read.
notahacker 16y ago
Chrome is a thin client for using Google search (their UI has even removed he distinction between typing in URLs and searching Google). Microsoft is too encumbered by regulation to tie IE in closely with their core product; instead they're compelled to offer "browser choice", compelled to offer a startup wizard to help you set your search engine to Google, and incapable of effectively integrating the browser into products people actually pay money for. Even if they were capable of developing the sort of product that might be good enough to win market share back from competitors, I'm really not sure what sort of return they'd be getting in their investment in developing and promoting IE, over and above what they'd get bundling some rapidly-developed webkit-based browser with Windows 7 and leaving it at that.
jcl 16y ago
For that matter, you could ask the same of Google and Firefox. Google clearly thinks that being the default search provider is worth the cost of a browser (or two, in this case). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Notable_events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation#Notable_eve...

joesb 16y ago

As long as you can have significant number of users on your software, you can direct (or misdirect) the direction of that technology. Nobody knows how bigger the web browser is going to be, MS sure doesn't want to lose the power in influencing and ensuring that their other product stay relevant.