08.10.09

The Google-Microsoft Tensions Revisited

Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Ron Hovsepian at 3:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Microsoft’s anti-Google AstroTurf recalled; Google’s brand value leaps; Microsoft approval drops

MICROSOFT’S robbery of Yahoo! [1, 2] has probably erased a lot of history relating to this saga, which lasted a year and a half.

A lot of people probably cannot remember that Microsoft hired AstroTurf groups such as LawMedia to battle against the Google/Yahoo! deal [1, 2]. In the case of LawMedia, the effect is said to have been Hispanic groups flooding channels of communication with messages that protest against the Google/Yahoo! deal. It is pseudo-grassroots, or classic AstroTurf.

“A lot of people probably cannot remember that Microsoft hired AstroTurf groups such as LawMedia to battle against the Google/Yahoo! deal.”Now that we come across the spontaneous press release “Hispanic Publishers Have High Hopes for Yahoo!-Microsoft Search Advertising Partnership” it is hard not to think about the LawMedia lobby. Why issue a promotional message like that?

Microsoft is very much afraid of Google, which — just like Free software — challenges the underlying business model of Microsoft by taking software on-line, as opposed to setting it free. Google and Microsoft, both of which are proprietary software companies, are still competing to own the medical data of US citizens and be in charge of other companies. Neither is really acceptable (either Fog Computing or non-Free software), but Google has narrower history of breaking the law, which it never did at quite the same scale as Microsoft.

According to some new numbers, Google’s brand value now significantly exceeds that of Microsoft.

Millward Brown Optimor has just published its list of its 100 most valuable global brands for 2009. Guess who topped the list?

You shouldn’t have to if you’re reading this blog. But yes, Google rings the bell at No. 1 with a $100 billion valuation, a 16 percent increase from a year ago. Microsoft came in second at $76.2 billion, an 8 percent jump from 2008.

These are not scientific surveys, but to some people they may be rough estimates to go by. Watch how Barcelona’s football club wishes to be dissociated from Microsoft, apparently.

FC Barcelona avoids the very appearance of endorsing Microsoft products

[...]

Last time I checked two years ago, during a trip to the Camp Nou (when Openbravo CEO Manel Sarasa got me into the president’s box), FC Barcelona was running OpenCMS for its Web site and a range of other open-source software for content management and other needs.

Perhaps FC Barcelona would have happily done a photo op with the Linux penguin, but just couldn’t bear to affiliate with Clippy?

Speaking of Europe, where Microsoft’s popularity is generally a lot lower, there are still articles which are hostile towards regulation there, such as this new one from Reuters. The language says it all really. I spoke to the Ombudsman just under an hour ago (on the phone). Over in the United States, Motley Fool/MSNBC, which are heavily influenced by Microsoft, show that Steve Ballmer’s approval rating is extremely low.

Investors: Steve Ballmer’s a Failure

Roughly 40% of respondents to a “Wall Street Journal” poll aren’t pleased.

Ron Hovsepian’s approval rating is also exceptionally low. Novell and Microsoft are in a bad shape, whereas Google and Red Hat, for instance, keep growing. █

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