Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Google Chase Gets Harder

Rugby action



Summary: Microsoft's inability to stop Google, as demonstrated by the latest news

Microsoft's latest (and still failing) attempt to dethrone Google search is now seeing the expensive creation of an Irish datacentre. Microsoft probably chose Dublin to reward for tax breaks (or get some more) [1, 2]. The cost is €341 million, which roughly equates to how much money Microsoft is losing on its Web business, based on just about every report. What does not kill Microsoft makes it weaker (Microsoft already borrows money).

MICROSOFT formally opened its $500 million (€341 million) Dublin “mega-data centre” yesterday, the first such facility outside the US, as the world’s largest software maker fights for a bigger slice of the online market.


As we showed a few weeks ago, Microsoft is better at lying about its market share in search than it is at actual search. After destroying Yahoo! only to find antitrust barriers [1, 2, 3, 4], Microsoft relies on former partner Carol Bartz to market the deal while yet another Yahoo! director jumps ship.

Bartz has been a disaster for Yahoo! and Michael Arrington begs to have Yang back

So in came Bartz, and the deals started happening. We've mostly kept quiet. Any new CEO deserves a honeymoon phase, and Bartz barked at journalists to keep their opinions to themselves on her first day at Yahoo: "It's been too crazy. People outside Yahoo deciding what Yahoo should do, shouldn't do. That's got to stop."

But the honeymoon ended when Yahoo signed away its most important asset for next to nothing. Yahoo went from being in the enviable position of no. 2 in search to just another portal, albeit a big one. And despite what Bartz said, she held out hard for a big up front cash payment. Microsoft never gave in, and Yahoo caved.


In the mean time, amid constant disturbance, Microsoft also poached Yahoo! staff, just as it is currently poaching Apple staff. There is a new satire from BBSpot about what Microsoft is doing.

Microsoft announced yesterday that Apple CEO and Chairman Steve Jobs would be joining Microsoft as its CEO replacing Steve Ballmer, whose performance in that position has been disappointing to investors. This broadens Microsoft's raid on Apple employees, which had only been focused on Apple Store managers.


In other more authentic news, Google has expanded past search and it is gaining at Microsoft's expense. Articles from the past week include:

Fed plan helps Google in cloud race with Microsoft

Google Inc.'s plan to design a set of cloud services for federal government agencies could give the company a boost in its effort to take on Microsoft Corp. on the desktop.


Google Chrome Is a Lock for 10% Share, but How Much More?

Google Chrome could easily reach 10 percent market share by 2011, but it could do more than that by being bundled with PCs by Sony, HP, Dell and Lenovo. Every analyst eWEEK polled said that while the Sony deal gives Google a toehold in PC bundling, it isn't enough for Google and high-tech watchers to get excited over. PC manufacturers, which have nothing but dumb boxes of metal, plastic and silicon without an OS to support them, could fear spurning Microsoft by going with Chrome.


Microsoft takes notice as more people use free Google Docs

No one knows how fast the market for online productivity programs will grow. IBM sells Lotus Symphony and Lotus Live as an online suite; Zoho offers free Office-like tools popular with students.


No Signal Despite Claims ; Tech Heads

If Microsoft Office is too expensive, and OpenOffice.org is too hefty, try Lotus Symphony.

Symphony is a free office suite featuring a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. It uses the Open Document Format but is also compatible with most a Microsoft formats like .doc and .xls and, even better, it's multi-platform - there areversions for Windows, Mac and Linux.


Elizabeth Montalbano, a Microsoft-oriented reporter from IDG, has served some Microsoft "damage control" while her colleague covered Google's response to Microsoft's latest FUD:

Google hit back at Microsoft today, defending the security of its new Chrome Frame plug-in and claiming that the software actually makes Internet Explorer (IE) safer and more secure.


For context, here is another report from IDG, claiming that "IE 8 runs ten times faster with Google Chrome plug-in."

According to tests run by Computerworld , Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) was 9.6 times faster than IE8 on its own. Computerworld ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite three times each for IE8 with Chrome Frame, and IE8 without the plug-in, then averaged the scores.


No wonder Microsoft is so worried.

"I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f---ing kill Google."

--Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed