In a contest billed as "Good vs. Evil" Google ‘The Geeks’ beat Microsoft ‘The Nerds’ in the Golden Penguin Bowl!
Not too long ago, Google Inc. seemed little more than a pesky insect to Microsoft Corp.’s 800-pound gorilla. It pits Microsoft chairman Bill Gates against the new darlings of the tech world, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who may have set out to create a better search engine, but now they find themselves challenging the world’s most powerful software company.
No more. As Google rapidly rolls out new products, the company best known for its wildly popular search engine is muscling into the software giant’s turf, including its stronghold: the computer desktop.
Nominally, the case revolves around the poaching by Google of former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee to lead its Chinese operations and a new research and development centre in Beijing. But the case is also a vivid illustration of the increasing threat Google poses to Microsoft’s continued domination of personal computing.
To many the battle recalls the titanic struggle almost a decade ago when Microsoft correctly identified the dominant browser maker at the time, Netscape Inc., as a major threat and proceeded to ruthlessly attempt to drive it out of the browser market.
Similarly Google’s advance into every corner of the online world represents a severe challenge to the software colossus. Lee is just one of hundreds of Microsofties who have jumped ship over the past two years to join Google, which has even had the temerity to set up a regional office just down the road from Microsoft’s headquarters.
Google’s domination of Internet searching meanwhile has pushed Microsoft’s search tools way down the preference list of most surfers, while its feature-rich e-mail programme Gmail has made Microsoft’s Hotmail look as antiquated as a postman on a bike.
Analysts say Google’s aggressive ambitions could pose a formidable threat to Microsoft because it gets to the heart of what drives Microsoft’s dominance: its control of the user experience through the Windows operating system.
If successful, Google could help refashion computing, making people less reliant on storing information on the Microsoft-powered PC on their desk and more dependent on free Web-based e-mail and search functions that can be accessed anywhere from any device regardless of the operating system.
Under such circumstances, the risk for Microsoft is that the computer desktop as we know it could cease to exist, said David Garrity, an analyst with Caris & Co. The question, Garrity said, is whether computer buyers may one day decide that they no longer even need a Microsoft operating system.
Microsoft denies that Google has been the impetus for improvements in its products. Sohn says the company is simply responding to customer feedback. He also downplays the Google competition, saying Microsoft has always faced plenty of foes.
Google, meantime, has signaled that it will fight Microsoft’s moves into its turf. The day before Microsoft launched a test version of its Web search engine, Google said it had nearly doubled the size of its search engine index. And this week, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google opened an office in Kirkland, not far from Microsoft’s Redmond campus.
Mayer said the goal is to attract employees who don’t want to leave their hometown.
Asked if that meant the company was recruiting Microsoft workers, she said: Not in a specific or targeted way, but we are looking at technical workers in the Seattle area who are interested in working for Google. We think we’re going to be major players in every significant area: search, music, and games. We think our future is bigger, bolder and brighter than many of the folks watching us.
And while Google has been the first to desktop search, he says many users may still prefer to wait for Microsoft’s more familiar product.