Forum Moderators: mack
At the annual Microsoft financial analyst meeting, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Steve Ballmer vowed that Microsoft was determined to beat Google in creating the best and most popular search-engine technology."There's a lot of Google fascination out there and we share it, and we're going to compete," Ballmer said with characteristic bluster. "We're going to compete very, very hard."
very, very hard
They want it very, very bad.
But MS punches low - remember the browser wars?
And remember the way Microsoft messed about with stylesheets on Opera, so that certain MSN pages didn't show up properly and made Opera look like it was broken.
I don't suppose the Google toolbar on IE could insert CSS modifications every once in a while?
Like: p {font-size:6em; margin:12em 0;}
That might speed the take-up of Firefox and Opera and the abandonment of Hotmail.
Maybe after the IPO they could do something like this to help skyrocket the prices of their stock. I'd love to see a BIG company compete against MS.
Although I see some room for some of what you're saying, ads in the browser? If they go along with that angle, I can see the day when Google overtakes Microsoft as the most hated successful tech company in the world. Webmasters would RAIL. Can you imagine competing adsense ads with your own site. What a PR nightmare!
ads in the browser?
Haha... I remember when ads on a search engine was a crazy idea! Targeted ads based on email content? That idea would never work.... Right? I mean, having ads presented along side your newletter advertising your product? NEVER! ;)
I'm not saying I LIKE the idea... just saying that it's a possible way of making money on a FREE version of the browser. Plus... think of the consumer! They would LOVE to see if there are better deals then the ones being presented as they are about to buy! I'd bet the browser we hate would be the one consumers LOVE!
I think they'll be as successful against Google as they were against Tivo.
Google needs to play on their strenghts (reach, innovation, speed etc). They can't afford to be inferior to anybody in anything they do at this point.
Can you imagine competing adsense ads with your own site. What a PR nightmare!
mediapartner bot and opera browser [webmasterworld.com]
The free version has Google AdSense in the browser last time I checked.
But even so, there's a big difference between Opera as a different company using adsense and Opera being owned by Google using adsense on the bottom of the page. I could be wrong but I think webmasters would cry foul if it got big.
I just don't see the browser market as a good market for Google to enter - think what you will of MS, they've been doing browser development for 15 years (more?), they've got a group of very smart people working on it and they're actually very good at it. Combine that with a self-perpetuating market (Windows upgrades) and you have a very hard fight on your hands.
Google needs to play on their strenghts (reach, innovation, speed etc). They can't afford to be inferior to anybody in anything they do at this point.
I wish I bookmarked this article because it explained so well what I didn't understand before about the browser market, why IE stopped improving it and what the future is likely to look at. It was by a former microsftie.
Essentially, as huge as Microsoft is, what makes them who they are is the OS and Office Suite which had been growing and growing to obscene proportions. As this guy's time at MS went on, MS would start to look at new business needing to bring in more and more money. It used to be a business bringing in $100 million was important. Now they need to keep entering new business of billion dollar figures in order to keep growing. And this is hard to do w/ the efficiency of Windows and Office Suite.
So while they face this growth problem, they simultaneously have to deal with people not needing to upgrade OSes or Office Suites anymore. To top it off, there is the rich media (Apps running on Windows) vs. thin clients portable on the internet and manageable on the server side. Upgrade the server and everyone's copy is upgraded. Much easier for IT departments than the desktop paradigm.
It basically showed why it was key for MS to kill Netscape. As soon as they did, they stopped developing I.E. And it took many years for firefox and opera to catch up. Now w. the constant security issues reaching critical mass, the other browsers look attractive and MS has given in and reactivated their IE team. However they don't have the 15 years experience you think they do, nor are they all that good at browser development. They are in fact intentionally killing browser development because it is bad for their business. They are begrudgingly doing this I.E. development. They will probably add tabs and make it secure and basically do the minimum to try to kill mozilla and opera.
When analyzing this issue, you need to understand the motivation of MS. Hopefully someone will dig up the url to that article and Brett will allow it to be posted. If not maybe someone can offer it via sticky. I'd like to bookmark it myself if it can be found.
Ship it with Google.com as the home page (what massive % of people never bother to change their homepage?)
Put the G toolbar somewhere nice and prominent, thereby constanlty driving traffic back to G search.
Add just those two together and browser=paid 4 with a dumptruck of cash/month to spare.
Most people just don't change their browser - and most people don't know or care about Google/Microsoft - they just click on the 'blue e' to use the internet...
Yes, Google could build a browser - but if they bungle a browser - people will begin to hate them. First the web designers (who have to work around the quirks) and then the surfers (who are presented with inferior looking websites). Building a browser isn't easy.
Anyhow - why the hell would anybody want a browser with ads? You can get a million and one browsers without them. Google will need to offer something truly new (look at Gmail; inovation) - how do you offer something truly new in the browser area - you still have to offer backward compatability and stick with what people are used to (forward/back/stop).
how do you offer something truly new in the browser area - you still have to offer backward compatability and stick with what people are used to (forward/back/stop).
That would be so easy to do you'd be amazed! For one, offer a combo / drop down edit box. As a designer I can't tell you how many workarounds I had to do to make things work that a combo box would have fixed with one line. Then you have all this crap that javascript does you can make part of the browser. The comment box I'm typing in is arcane. No formatting options at all other than being able to say wrap text.
Client side validation. (e.g. as a web designer, I'd specify an email input box and the browser would automatically force a valid email address, or I'd specify a URL input box and it would force a valid url.) There are a million things that could be if browser innovation would have continued. The world at large does not understand and realize that the entire internet is "crippled" nor the reason why (i.e. blame microsoft).
I remember how many cool new doodads came out w/ every new version of netscape and ie. We used to reload every 15 minutes in the office to find a new beta version. After netscape died, years went by with nothing. It's so sad compare to what could have been.
I'm convinced that if Google can keep their culture after IPO (a very tough feat!), then they can build a killer browser and bring innovation to the net in ways that would surprise you.
OTOH, my prediction is that Google's IPO spells the beginning of an opening for a smaller, devoted new search engine company to come in.
Yahoo had a similar PR that Google now does and it seemed like such a great company until the realities of the stock market turned it into another soulless corporation. The same will happen to Google. Their PHD's who turn into millionaires will lose the fire in their gut/retire etc.. Surprising as it may sound, IPOs kill incentive.
Another cycle on the internet has started... Hey, anyone want to start a new search engine with me? Just kidding. :)
What have ads in Opera to do with 'We will Compete!'? Nothing. Ads are there because Opera wants to earn some money with them - we call this Opera being an affiliate. They are not part of 'Defending from MS' tactics.
Try to imagine next steps MS will do and how Google will defend itself. Forget Opera because it won't play a role in famous 'We Will Compete' story.
They've won a lot of battles because they own the OS and a lot of the software. It will be interesting to see if they can push Google over like they have other companies.
I'm rooting for Google, though. I just hope their IPO doesn't make them forget their roots - i.e. that the USERS' experience is one of the most important things.
I'm sure we'll all benefit, though, as competition spurs innovation.
Nope. IE already defaults to msn.com if someone clicks the search button on the browser. Google and Yahoo are currently *well* known sites.
