6 ms·

Wouldn't have happened had they not wasted 6 billion on aQuantive trying to buy their way into search. Google paddled that bottom.

barista 14y ago
buy their way into ads you mean. They bought their way into search via the Yahoo deal. and of course Google bought their way into search by paying firefox and others who distributed the google toolbar... everybody tries to do it I guess
- tysonjennings 14y ago
  "They bought their way into search via the Yahoo deal." That has only really bore fruit in the US though. MS have less than 5 percent share of search worldwide. "Google bought their way into search by paying firefox" Google actually had a larger share of the search market prior to the Firefox deal.
- beagle3 14y ago
  > Google bought their way into search by paying firefox and others who distributed the google toolbar. Google already owned search when firefox finally had nontrivial market share. They did not "buy their way into search", the transformed the market with an excellent product (Google altavista, the undisputed king until Google came). At some point, they started paying e.g. mozilla to maintain their position. But they reached that position based on merit. (A rather uncommon event, unfortunately).
recoiledsnake 14y ago
Funny how Eric Schmidt thinks Bing is a huge threat to Google. The corporate spin at the hearings is just too ironic. http://cnnmoneytech.tumblr.com/post/10483503055/eric-schmidt-thinks-bing-rules http://cnnmoneytech.tumblr.com/post/10483503055/eric-schmidt...
- tysonjennings 14y ago
  Have you considered the possibility that Schmidt the man actually believes that Bing is competitive with Google and sees this as something to rally against? How is that lying* and spinning? I would consider an executive to be remiss to arrogantly assume that their product is better no matter what. The fact that Schmidt isn't slamming the Bing effort and is actually offering praise should be seen as a good thing. Which CEO was it that laughed at the iPhone when it was released? You seem to be consumed by hate. *recoiledsnake originally had the word "lying" in his comment. I just noticed he edited that out.
  - incongruity 14y ago
    Exactly. Never fully trust the public statements of a corporate exec – they're often smart enough (or stupid enough) to try to be manipulative, either internally or externally and public statements can play both of those sides.
  - mynameishere 14y ago
    the possibility that Schmidt the man actually believes that Bing is competitive with Google From a results-based perspective, it more-or-less is. But actually capturing the market is hard to imagine. Search engines in general seem to be reaching the limits of filtering 5 billion pages based on 2 or 3 word queries.
- nostromo 14y ago
  Reminds me of Microsoft's investment in Apple in 1997... "There was some suggestion that Mr Gates may be anxious to keep Apple afloat to forestall a scenario where, following an Apple demise, a virtual monopoly hold by Microsoft on the software market would inevitably attract negative attention from fair competition regulators in Washington." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/apple-grabs-150m-microsoft-lifeline-1244198.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/apple-grabs-150m-...
  - DeepDuh 14y ago
    The irony here is that their rescue seems to have worked out a bit too well.

barista 14y ago

buy their way into ads you mean. They bought their way into search via the Yahoo deal. and of course Google bought their way into search by paying firefox and others who distributed the google toolbar... everybody tries to do it I guess

tysonjennings 14y ago
"They bought their way into search via the Yahoo deal." That has only really bore fruit in the US though. MS have less than 5 percent share of search worldwide. "Google bought their way into search by paying firefox" Google actually had a larger share of the search market prior to the Firefox deal.
beagle3 14y ago
> Google bought their way into search by paying firefox and others who distributed the google toolbar. Google already owned search when firefox finally had nontrivial market share. They did not "buy their way into search", the transformed the market with an excellent product (Google altavista, the undisputed king until Google came). At some point, they started paying e.g. mozilla to maintain their position. But they reached that position based on merit. (A rather uncommon event, unfortunately).

recoiledsnake 14y ago

Funny how Eric Schmidt thinks Bing is a huge threat to Google. The corporate spin at the hearings is just too ironic. http://cnnmoneytech.tumblr.com/post/10483503055/eric-schmidt-thinks-bing-rules http://cnnmoneytech.tumblr.com/post/10483503055/eric-schmidt...

tysonjennings 14y ago
Have you considered the possibility that Schmidt the man actually believes that Bing is competitive with Google and sees this as something to rally against? How is that lying* and spinning? I would consider an executive to be remiss to arrogantly assume that their product is better no matter what. The fact that Schmidt isn't slamming the Bing effort and is actually offering praise should be seen as a good thing. Which CEO was it that laughed at the iPhone when it was released? You seem to be consumed by hate. *recoiledsnake originally had the word "lying" in his comment. I just noticed he edited that out.
- incongruity 14y ago
  Exactly. Never fully trust the public statements of a corporate exec – they're often smart enough (or stupid enough) to try to be manipulative, either internally or externally and public statements can play both of those sides.
- mynameishere 14y ago
  the possibility that Schmidt the man actually believes that Bing is competitive with Google From a results-based perspective, it more-or-less is. But actually capturing the market is hard to imagine. Search engines in general seem to be reaching the limits of filtering 5 billion pages based on 2 or 3 word queries.
nostromo 14y ago
Reminds me of Microsoft's investment in Apple in 1997... "There was some suggestion that Mr Gates may be anxious to keep Apple afloat to forestall a scenario where, following an Apple demise, a virtual monopoly hold by Microsoft on the software market would inevitably attract negative attention from fair competition regulators in Washington." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/apple-grabs-150m-microsoft-lifeline-1244198.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/apple-grabs-150m-...
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  The irony here is that their rescue seems to have worked out a bit too well.