4 ms·

Google's Microsoft Complex

• mdasen 18y ago
  From my vantage point, Google has been nicer. I can switch search providers with no hassle if someone offers a technologically superior product. Microsoft, through everyone developing for the Windows API, made it very difficult for people to change OS - less so now that the internet has arguably become the largest platform. Still, I can see how Google exerts a bit of a hold because of AdWords. I know at my work, we never think about non-AdWords networks. If you're going to monetize search, you need advertisers. In order to get advertisers, you need users. You can go the whole, loose money now and then make it up later technique, but that's hard unless you've got some nice VCs. Maybe the issue is who their customers are. With Microsoft, it's definitely the people using Windows and such. With Google, one could argue that their customers aren't people using Google, but the advertisers who pay for it - and Google does have a little lock over them as they have the search traffic. Still, I think Google has been more open and tried harder to succeed on its merits than Microsoft has.
  • Tamerlin 18y ago
    "tried harder to succeed on its merits than Microsoft has." The flaw in that argument is that it presumes that Microsoft's success was based on Microsoft's success. You're addressing what MS has done to maintain their dominant market position, not how they got there -- though in the beginning, MS got its start through smart business rather than technology or innovation.