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Google Disrupts Microsoft Cash Cows

Calf with cows on grass land



Summary: Google takes business away from Microsoft, antitrust comes into play, and Xbox users are banned

Google is useful in the sense that it weakens a company that's attacking GNU/Linux. And Microsoft is suffering indeed. As one consulting firm put it last week, "Cloud computing threatens Microsoft business model."



BusinessWeek has this new article titled "Turbulence on the Way to the Cloud"

British newspaper publisher Telegraph Media switched from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail and is rolling out other Google Apps.


There are other stories just like that in the past week's news. For instance:

i. Is Microsoft a dinosaur to Google's mammal?

However (and this is a really big however), Google’s products are maturing at an incredible pace, perhaps because they eat their own dogfood and run their own enterprise on Google technologies. Here’s the real question you have to ask yourself: Is it worth investing in a Microsoft ecosystem now? Or does Microsoft need to fundamentally shift directions if it hopes to keep attracting new customers in a world that is increasingly turning to the Web for everything it does?


ii. Students prefer Google to Microsoft

Google is the world's most attractive employer, followed closely by its rival, Microsoft, said a recent survey by Universum, a provider in research, strategic consulting and media solutions in the field of employer branding.


iii. Google's Obsession With Microsoft Burns Hotter

Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims that Microsoft has provided his company with a sort of 'reverse roadmap' of what not to do to achieve sustained success, a comment that shows just how preoccupied Google has become with its gigantic rival.


iv. Google CEO: We Won’t Repeat Microsoft’s Mistakes

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on a bit of a Microsoft offensive. Earlier this week, while talking to press in Boston when Schmidt was asked to comment on a statement by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, he said, “I’ve learned not to respond to quotes by Steve Ballmer.” Oh Snap!


v. Google: Don’t Be Evil. Or Microsoft.

There is a certain batch of new articles worth tackling in isolation. Specifically, it's about regulation. We previously wrote about Microsoft-Yahoo! antitrust barriers [1, 2, 3, 4], which according to the Telegraph will lead to no progress this year.

Yahoo! and Microsoft search deal delayed until 2010



The two companies signed a 10-year deal in July 2009, which will see Microsoft’s Bing technology power Yahoo! search. Both companies have been waiting on US regulatory approval and at the time of the signing of the deal said they expected it to be closed by October 27.


It's not getting any easier. Now they want to make it even more worthy of scrutiny, essentially by using up what's left in Yahoo!, which Microsoft ruined deliberately whilst ousting key staff.

Microsoft has made no substantial progress in this area and it knows it must stop Google. Microsoft even uses politics against Google these days. Situations that are suspect include:

  1. Microsoft Loses to Google, Microsoft's Anti-Google Lobby Unable to Change Laws Anymore
  2. Has Microsoft Sent Its Former Employees to Conduct Anti-Google Studies?
  3. Microsoft's Anti-Google Whisper Campaign
  4. Microsoft-Sponsored Czech Presidency Fights Google?
  5. Did Microsoft Hire Consumer Watchdog to Attack Google?
  6. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC): Got Microsoft?


Found in the Wall Street Journal is the following piece from the following person:

Mr. Petkantchin is research director at the France- and Brussels-based Institut économique Molinari.


Institut économique Molinari also played a role in helping Microsoft. It's called a "Think Tank", but these are increasingly associated with AstroTurf and lies, based on a recent survey that PR Watch wrote about in October. According to another new report from the Washington Post, "Microsoft buster Gary Reback goes after Google on books"

Gary Reback, a leading antitrust attorney from Silicon Valley who went after Microsoft in the late 1990s, has a new target in sight: Google.


Sounds like another Christine Varney based on the track record. Separately, the Wall Street Journal published the following:

The Great Disruption



[...]

Lawrence Lessig, who was an expert in the Microsoft antitrust case (and is now a professor at Harvard Law School), tells Mr. Auletta that Google will soon be more powerful than Microsoft ever was, since primacy in search gives the company unprecedented control over commerce and content.


Also worth mentioning is the following item from Information Week. It speaks about Microsoft fines which it has not paid to its victims yet (the issue is well overdue). It pays that money to Google now, as we noted before.

As part of a 2006 settlement between Microsoft and the state of California alleging overcharges for software, the city of Los Angeles received several million dollars. The city will use $1.5 million of that Microsoft money to pay most of the $1.9 million cost of the Google contract's first year.


But never mind the crimes; Microsoft Nick pretends it's all attributed to "anti-Microsoft mentality". It must be "hatred" when someone loves the law.

Silicon Valley, the home of Apple and Google, is known for its anti-Microsoft mentality.


It is stuff like this which invalidates the Seattle P-I as anything other than a Microsoft booster. They always defend Microsoft, no matter what the circumstances are. There are exceptions though. Microsoft is currently mass-banning Xbox Live accounts. There is actually a valid reason for this, but will there be false positives?

No word on the exact time the latest ban wave took place but according to the official Xbox Live forums and the tears of many pirates asking why their consoles are now banned, it looks to of taken place within the course of this last week.


Microsoft also uses this as an excuse/reason to discourage second-hand sales of Xbox 360.

Larry Hryb, Programming Director at Microsoft, is warning people who buy a second hand Xbox360 as they seem to be running the risk of not being able to connect with Xbox Live.


Actually, Xbox 360 cannot be bought, it can only be rented. The above shows that Microsoft failed with its kill switch-enabled DRM experiment called Xbox. It has already lost billions.

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