Bonum Certa Men Certa

Google Continues Eating Microsoft's Lunch

Calzone



Summary: A glimpse at how the 'Web wars' are going along now that Microsoft loses customers to Google and the Yahoo! deal is blocked

GOOGLE IS not just a search engine anymore. In fact, for Google on the server and in mobile devices, GNU/Linux is the only platform.

Microsoft's financial results come on Thursday (Microsoft will try to bury these under the rug using the simultaneous launch of Vista 7) and it will suffer greatly from lost business such as this from the news:

Google lands a new blow on Microsoft with Rentokil Initial email agreement



GOOGLE yesterday announced its biggest ever email deal with support services firm Rentokil Initial, estimated by analysts to be worth up to $3.5m (€£2.2m).

The internet giant will replace rival Microsoft, after it secured the contract to provide email to 35,000 of the rat catcher’s employees using its Google Apps product – which includes a calendar, integrated chat, email translation and video communications.


This is just one among many such deals. These are not a triumph to Free software because Google's software is mostly proprietary. "Microsoft and Google battle with cloud computing," states the following new article.

In the world of computer software, becoming dormant or, God forbid, complacent, is a death sentence.

Microsoft is all too aware of this as they struggle to keep people interested in their operating systems.

Google, a company that seems to never stop to catch its breath technologically, is a rather surprising threat to Microsoft — the undisputed chief among the current thick-client software companies.


A Slate publication (formerly of Microsoft) writes the following:

According to the New York Times, the forecast for Microsoft (MSFT) is “partly cloudy.” While the company is planning a high-profile software release later on this week, doubts remain whether Microsoft can build as much buzz as its rivals. Its chief software architect says the company is reinventing itself or at least trying to.


Google may seem unstoppable given its strong results, as covered in Bloomberg and in BusinessWeek:

Earnings preview: High hopes riding on Google's 3Q



[...]

Microsoft renamed its search engine Bing in June as part of an upgrade that has been heavily promoted in a $100 million marketing campaign. So far though, Google remains way out in front with a nearly two-thirds share of the U.S. search market compared with about 10 percent for Microsoft.


The article correctly states that Microsoft just renamed its search and threw a lot of money at brainwash (including paid/compensated bloggers). We're seeing more of the same in China these days, but it seems like a dead end for Microsoft. Even the Yahoo! deal becomes less relevant as Yahoo! continues to decline and antitrust stands in the way [1, 2, 3, 4]. Here is an update on the situation in Europe:

Ballmer: Europe jurisdiction on Yahoo deal unclear



[...]

"Europe's a little confusing because the Europeans have to decide which jurisdiction, whether it's the European Commission or some of the national competition authorities," will have final say over the deal, Ballmer added.


In an analysis which misses the point, no attention is given to the fact that the DOJ, unlike Europe, is likely to approve the deal because of Microsoft influence [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Earlier today we posted a video of Lessig where he talks about the subject. Had there been real justice, the DOJ should (and would) impose sanctions on Microsoft for bullying Yahoo! and selfishly destroying the company for its own benefit. See for example:



In this week's news we only find that Yahoo! carries on falling (financially), Google is gaining market share in the US while Yahoo! declines, and Microsoft shields its new brand.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Word About the Upcoming Talk by Richard Stallman - Scheduled for Friday This Week - Has Spread ("The Cost of Freedom," Lausanne, Switzerland)
So the word is spreading
 
Links 14/01/2025: Vaccination Hesitancy Problems and Kangaroo Courts (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/01/2025: Introduction to GrapheneOS and Small Internet
Links for the day
Dr. Miriam Bastian From the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Gives a Talk in a Couple of Weeks at FOSDEM (Brussels, Belgium)
It's good to see people from all around the world and with very different backgrounds united around digital philosophy
Andy Farnell on Eating Your Own Dog Food
focuses on security but goes beyond that
EPO Uses the Misnomer "AI" to Attack Software Developers in Europe
The EPO is nowadays a huge pile of crimes
The European Patent Office’s (EPO) Communication on "Reform" is "Incomplete and Misleading," Says the Central Staff Committee at the EPO
This puts Europe at risk and makes it more vulnerable
[Meme] How to Lose Social Life (While Pretending to Still Have It)
Talk to people, not to microphones
Android (or AOSP) is More Free Than iOS, Both in Practice (as OEM Bundles) Both Are User-Hostile
In a perfect world, people would choose and deploy software that is entirely made up of reciprocally-licensed bits
Neuroscience of Consciousness Paper: Why Social Control Media and Proprietary Spyware Harm Your Health
"Software Freedom turns out to be good for your health"
Access to the Source Code of the Programs You're Using Matters (Even If You're Not a Coder and Cannot Fix Bugs)
Companies like Microsoft tell us that full access to all the code isn't important
Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com) Publishes Fake Articles About Linux and About (for) 'Linux' Foundation Openwashing
Brittany Day is at it again
Links 14/01/2025: LA Crisis and EU, UK Respond to "X.com" Threat From South African Oligarch
Links for the day
"AI Music" is Not Music and It's Hardly "AI" Either
Synthetic garbage is a solution in search of a problem
Webspam in BetaNews
Not only is it marketing SPAM
[Meme] 13 Years a Slave of Microsoft
Might makes right?
Gemini Links 14/01/2025: The Gemtext Print Hurdle and New Game: Fill!
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 13, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, January 13, 2025
Links 13/01/2025: Conflicts, Prisoner Exchange, and Homes on Fire
Links for the day
Angola: Microsoft Windows Falls Below 10%
Microsoft has a really bad 2024 in Africa
[Meme] Twitter ("X") Has Been Grooming Radicals Since 2022
Musk's very own "grooming gang"
[Meme] What Free Speech Ought to Mean
It does not sound like RMS suggests anything other than quitting social control media
Gemini Links 13/01/2025: RestFest, Yule, and Deedum
Links for the day
Modern Web Browsers as Web Censorship Software
We continue to recommend Geminispace
Two Weeks From Now Dr. Richard Stallman Speaks at The Summit of Future 2025 (India)
he will be giving a "Keynote Address" in India
Microsoft is Tight With Money: It's About the Salaries ('Cost' of the Workers)
a question of cost, not skill
Google Got People Sort of Addicted to Android So It Can Cash in (Services, App Store, Advertising) Decades Later
This is not software freedom
The Free Software Foundation Reaches 370k Dollars in Funding, Due Date is January 17th When Richard Stallman is Guest of Honour in Lausanne (Switzerland)
Even fellow board members seem unaware of it
Record Lows for Windows (Microsoft) in Botswana
The market share of Vista 11 is seen as going down
Preserving Deleted Articles About Bill Gates Talking Like a Drug Dealer About Computer Users
Now it's 2025. Different challenge.
Links 13/01/2025: Disinformation, Social Control Media Actively Promoting Nazism, and Catchup With Ukraine
Links for the day
Microsoft Front Group Starts the Year by Championing Underage (or Child) Labour
the fake 'FSF'
TPM Boosters Inside Debian (TPM Isn't About Security, It is About Control Over Users and Their Machines)
We're not rushing to any conclusions
Aaron Swartz Died 12 Years Ago After a Vicious Government Campaign to Stop Him
The Aaron Swartz story is a reminder of the importance of having verifiable/verified information out there for the general public to see
Links 13/01/2025: GitLab Enshittification and Minimalism and Efficiency with Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Links 13/01/2025: Hardware, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Chatbots Are Not Data-Driven, They're Human-Censored and Rely on Wage Slaves (and Sometimes Unpaid Volunteers)
This is the Microsoft wage slavery
Microsoft Appears to Have Fallen to Only 15% in Maldives
This is a problem for Microsoft
Rumours of IBM Canada Layoffs
We'll keep a vigilant eye on this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 12, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, January 12, 2025
Bots Covering Debian Releases
It would be quite safe to guess that chatbots were at least partly leveraged for that text
Gemini Links 12/01/2025: No Country For Old Men, Burned Homes, and "Planet P is Clean"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Brittany Day and Brian Fagioli Are Still at It, Googlebombing "Linux" With LLM Slop (Taking Away Traffic From the Articles They're Plagiarising)
Some more sites that used to cover GNU/Linux have turned into slopfarms
Links 12/01/2025: Microsoft Admits It's Laying Off Staff Only Where Staff is "Expensive" (Race to the Bottom)
Links for the day
[Meme] Being High on Drugs Isn't Happiness (Likewise, Being a "Star" in Social Control Media is Temporary)
Many entities - or people - will regret telling everybody "follow me on Twitter"
[Meme] They Say That RMS Says the "F" Word (Freedom) Too Much...
About 32.7k US dollars are now left for the FSF to raise (in 6 days)
Links 12/01/2025: More Sanctions Against Russia, SCOTUS Signals Fentanylware (TikTok) Ban Will Stay
Links for the day
[Meme] A Jihad Against Servers the User Controls
We need to strive for and work towards greater control by users over "their" servers
Microsoft Azure-Only Bugs in "Linux" Can "Compromise the System."
From ubuntu.com and linux.org a few days ago
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 11, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, January 11, 2025
Gemini Links 12/01/2025: DHL Express Does Not Deliver, Oddmuse Update
Links for the day