10.19.09

Google Continues Eating Microsoft’s Lunch

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Search, Servers at 11:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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. █

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