"Every time you use Google, you're using a machine running the Linux kernel."

--Chris DiBona, Google

MICROSOFT has manufactured a fair deal of 'studies' recently [1, 2], mostly in order to deceive the public when it comes to its progress on the Web (compared to rivals). The truth about the fact is that, despite billions of dollars in investment, i.e. losses, Microsoft carries on losing market share.

Microsoft is now running a new PR scam. Actually, it's more of a sophisticated smear campaign. Microsoft is trying to portray Google as a privacy violator/invader (yes, again) and it's lying in the process.

Search Anonymization: More Hot Air from Microsoft

[...]

As it stands today, Microsoft keeps sensitive search data for 18 months, twice as long as Google currently does (although Google's new 9-month rule is also a bit slippery in terms of the actual anonymity it provides). Why didn't Microsoft just agree to meet Google at 9 months, or even to meet Yahoo's 13-month limit, and then have everyone work together to get to the European's stated goal of 6 months? Because it can't. It's still a distant third in the search engine wars, even in Europe, and it can't afford to concede anything that may further erode its position.

This is not the first time that Microsoft shows its outrageously hypocritical attitude when it comes to privacy. It does not always get caught though. The article above was a single minor exception among a sea of articles that scold Google by quoting Microsoft, whose history shows low value of integrity and honesty. The company's track record when it comes to privacy is abysmal.

Microsoft has many reasons to fear Google. Just days ago it was reported that Redfin had dumped Microsoft for Google in at least one area.

Online real estate site Redfin, once a high-profile showcase for Microsoft's Virtual Earth technology, said this morning that it's switching exclusively to Google Maps in an effort to improve map-rendering speed on its site.

In reality, Google's value is not so shy of Microsoft's. It's almost two thirds of it now, but both companies are forced to cut down on planned expansions.

With the economy in the shape it's in, even Microsoft and Google are thinking twice before dropping $100 million on a new datacenter. But the two tech giants are easing off the funding pedal for different reasons.

Remember those search briberies [1, 2]? It's still a total disaster.

Live Cashback Users Feel Cheated By Microsoft

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This has completely outraged hundreds of those who tried using the program and were unsuccessful due to the outage. There are about 90 comments on Microsoft post, calling Microsoft everything from being a fraudster to a crock, to liars.

One of Microsoft's loyal fans, who casually writes at IDG, actually believes that Microsoft's latest appointment of an online chief (the predecessors just keep quitting) is yet another mistake and a case of "heading the wrong way." He concludes with:

It may be that overseeing Office's online expansion isn't one of Lu's responsibilities, and that he's been told to focus on search. If that's the case, though, it means that Microsoft's online strategy is divided among several different people, which doesn't bode well, either.

Does anyone believe that Ballmer's dream of crushing Google will ever come to fruition? ⬆

“Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux...”

--Steve Ballmer (September 2008)

Free software owns the datacentre