Google certainly is giving Microsoft a run for its money. Simply put, Google has become a new kind of foe to Microsoft: It has combined software innovation with a brand-new Internet business.
In fact, Google has recently become the company of choice for many Internet users, not only for its awesome search engine, but for its transformation into a diversified company that finds news, images, product prices, book excerpts, satellite maps and directions to the corner market, as well as offering a 2-gigabyte e-mail service (via Gmail) ... all for free!
And while Google has been busy launching those products, Microsoft has been scrambling to catch up in search. In fact, it has spent about $150 million on its new search project (Underdog), but Google keeps heaving ahead with search advancements including:
But, what really chaps Microsoft's hide is that Google is gaining the ability to attack the very core of Microsoft's franchise -- control over what users do first when they turn on their computers.
Will Google Surpass Microsoft?
The idea that Google will one day marginalize Microsoft's operating system and bypass Windows applications is starting to become a reality. Truth is, it's been four years since Microsoft has even rolled out a piece of software that generated the kind of attention Google seems to generate every month.
And it certainly doesn't help matters that one of the chief architects of Windows switched sides to work for Google. As of March 2005, roughly 100 Microsoft employees had left for its search rival.
Innovation is Key
One reason Google has been bringing out so many new or improved products is that Google's CEO understands that innovation is the only sure edge Google has. And that edge has certainly kept Microsoft at bay; Microsoft's array of weapons has so far proven next to useless against Google.
Regardless of how the battle will turn out and in whose favor it will fall, one fact remains: Microsoft is taking longer to catch Google than anyone could have imagined. And unless it can deliver search that is obviously better, most users won't bother to switch.
Fortune May 2, 2005
My favorite search engine, like many of yours, is Google. In fact, I was one of the first few thousand people to start using it shortly after it went beta out of Stanford in the late '90s.
It was obvious back then that Google was far better than anything else out there and the company has only continued to excel and diversify. They have grown by such leaps and bounds, it's hard for me to imagine even Microsoft betting against Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt.
I have enormous respect for Google and their "do no evil" policy. In many ways I have been modeling my site after many of their practices. They are making very serious inroads against Microsoft and may one day pass them.
If you have any interest in tech and this subject I would highly recommend reading the above six-page article in Fortune, as it is an excellent article documenting the history of how Bill Gates really blew it when it came to fully appreciating Google's potential threat to Microsoft.
My belief is that this time around he won't win like he did when he squashed Netscape and made the transition to the Internet in the mid '90s. I believe Bill has met his match with the upstart kids from Stanford and their mentor from Netscape, Eric Schmidt.
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