Google vs Microsoft Part 2

[BryantStevens]

Continued from: [webmasterworld.com...]

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Links to stories:

[reuters.com...]

[Yidaki]

1) well spotted
2) dublicate listing (reuter's the original)
3) what does "taking aim" mean? Is google willing to sell? Is ms going to buy it? Are they dreaming? Am i? Please wake me up!

<added>GoogleGuy, can you here me, GoogleGuy? Do not sell your buttons to ms!</added>

[edited by: Yidaki at 9:49 pm (utc) on April 2, 2003]

[msr986]

Whoa! That is interesting news....

But is it *really* true? Will MS really position themselves to buy Google? If something like this happens, what will happen to the quality of Google? Is it the end of the world?

[rfgdxm1]

Does this mean Google will crash several times a day and need to be rebooted? ;) Considering Microsoft has more money than God, I'd say if this report is true Google will soon be a subdiary of Microsoft.

[bzprod]

Great Find

[suggy]

And, it wasn't a dream - it was a nightmare! Arggh!

Night, night

Suggy

[jrobbio]

Does that mean that Microsoft will be using Linux servers to continue the service or change them to one of their formats out of pride?

[seth_wilde]

We do view Google more and more as a competitor. We believe that we can provide consumers with a better product and a better user experience. That's something that we're actively looking at doing

Sounds to me like they want to take Google down rather than buy them.

[mykel]

But if they're saying:

We believe that we can provide consumers with a better product and a better user experience

that would suggest they're going to compete and build something different. If the search is a typical MS product, I can just imagine the problems with it.

<added>Oh, too slow in typing once again.</added>

[edited by: mykel at 9:52 pm (utc) on April 2, 2003]

[rfgdxm1]

>But is it *really* true? Will MS really position themselves to buy Google? If something like this happens, what will happen to the quality of Google? Is it the end of the world?

Reuters is a VERY credible news service. If MS really wants to buy, the owners of Google can be expected to sell in a heartbeat. Makes sense for Microsoft. They like being dominant, and now they will dominate Internet searching.

[sleazylou]

AFAIK they still use Linux servers for Hotmail :)

[EliteWeb]

Dont do it Google. You can reign over MS if you just hold on a little more! :P

[atadams]

I didn't get from the article that MS was thinking of buying Google, but they were going to compete harder against them.

So what will they do to integrate the web search more into Windows and do things Google can't because they don't have access to the OS.

[canuck]

Well Google's quality would go down the drain... can't wait until MS-Google releases their weekly "patches" for their ToolBar/etc.!

Not gonna happen!

- canuck

[rfgdxm1]

>Sounds to me like they want to take Google down rather than buy them.

No. Now that Yahoo! has bought Inktomi, MS figures it might as well own a search provider too. Google will soon be a MS subsidiary, and power MSN search.

[canuck]

Yes, it just sounds like MS is going to be directly competing with Google on Search...

And we all know how fair Microsoft is about it's competing!

- canuck

PS. Seems Google's ungodly market-share in search has finally woken up some major players (Yahoo, Microsoft, etc)... more competition the better.

[rfgdxm1]

>I didn't get from the article that MS was thinking of buying Google, but they were going to compete harder against them.

That is a possible interpretation. However, wouldn't it make more sense to buy Google? I say MS is dreaming if they think they can beat Google starting a new SE from scratch. Remember, Bill Gates could buy Google for what to him is pocket change.

[msr986]

>I didn't get from the article that MS was thinking of buying Google, but they were going to compete harder against them.

After seeing this comment I reread the article. I must agree, MS is not looking to buy Google, just compete harder.

I guess we are just a little too paranoid around here!

[atadams]

Remember, Bill Gates could buy Google for what to him is pocket change.

You can only buy what's for sale.

[rfgdxm1]

>PS. Seems Google's ungodly market-share in search has finally woken up some major players (Yahoo, Microsoft, etc)... more competition the better.

Why think Google will do different than Yahoo? Yahoo didn't increase competition by starting a new search engine. They just bought one up. MS is giving a chance for the people who put up the venture capital for Google to cash in big time. Why go IPO rather then a private sale to an obscenely rich company? Hmm...Googlesoft?

[BryantStevens]

Microsoft does not compete by trying harder. They either play dirty (integrate their browser into the operating system, tell OEM's they can't ship Netscape on their machines if they want to license their OS, etc) or they simply buy the competition and are done with it.

I don't see why Microsoft would want to put the resources into competiting and actually developing good search engine technology when they could just buy Google from a fraction of their 40 billion in cash and be done with it. Bam! Competition eliminated. That is why Microsoft is a monopoly and should have been broken into threee companies YEARS ago. An OS division, an application division, and an internet division.

[edited by: BryantStevens at 10:08 pm (utc) on April 2, 2003]

[rfgdxm1]

>You can only buy what's for sale.

Google has already been talking IPO. There is a forum here about that now even. An IPO is just another way of selling a stake in the company. Google is owned by venture capitalists. The dream of VC folks is to build something MS wants to buy. Why IPO when you can sell direct to the richest man on Earth?

[bcolflesh]

AFAIK they still use Linux servers for Hotmail :)

I don't believe they ever used Linux - they were using the much more robust FreeBSD, as evidenced on their site:

www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/case/hotmail/default.asp

Regards,
Brent

[anoryu]

M$ doesn't want to buy Google (well maybe they do but Google wouldn't sell). What they are saying is that they are going to go full bore into the search engine market. With yahoo!'s purchase of Inktomi they forced M$ into developing their own SE. b4 the yahoo purchase MSN was getting it's results from Inktomi(currently still are)but yahoo being a portal and msn being a portal they are direct competitors and M$ is not going to pay their competitor for using their results.
M$ is saying that it's time for them to attempt their hand at google because G is the top dog and M$ always wants that position. What they are truly saying is that they are taking on yahoo (they won't come out and say that yet because currently yahoo is the hand that feeds them). So by saying they are going after google they are not biting the hand that feeds them and they might even get a "partner" with yahoo (the enemy of my enemy is my friend).

So to sum it all up M$ is taking on yahoo using google as a scape goat, all because of the yahoo purchase of Inktomi.

[rfgdxm1]

>M$ doesn't want to buy Google (well maybe they do but Google wouldn't sell).

You would think that the owners of Google would turn down massive amounts of cash from MS?

[Kennyh]

"More people use MSN Search than any other search service" - from the top of a MSN results page. Seems they don't need to by Google, they're already No.1 ;-)

Anyone know how the research co. managed to come up with that one?

[Clovis]

i think it comes down to MS being jealous it isnt mentioned in every thread on WebmasterWorld. yep, green with envy that google is wildly successful and no one ever mentions MSN or how to achieve better rankings there, or how to "crack their code".

[atadams]

i think it comes down to MS being jealous it isnt mentioned in every thread on WebmasterWorld.

Should we be on the lookout for the appearance of "MSguy"?

[rfgdxm1]

Or they are jealous Clovis of Google getting all those ordinary people searching with them instead of msn.com. This can be solved by having Google redirect to msn.com.

[Clovis]

perish the thought! not me, im google through and through... wow that kinda hurt. never been called something so foul in all my life.