Summary: Microsoft proceeds to smearing Google behind the scenes if allegations are correct

IT HAS ONLY been a few days since we last wrote about Microsoft's anti-ODF whisper campaign [1, 2]. In the news we now find another, very similar accusation where Google is the victim.

What An Anti-Google Whisper Campaign Looks Like

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For example, over the weekend we got an email from Will Rodger of LMG Inc, a Washington-based public affairs firm that is known to work with Microsoft and specializes in "next-generation services such as viral and online campaigns."

The email pointed out a total of three Googlers have been poached by the Obama administration. It read: "This looks like a full embrace of Google by the White House. We do not remember a time when one company had so many executives leave to serve a single administration. Others may have a better handle on the history."

How familiar a pattern this has become. See for example:

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

Anti-GNU/Linux whisper campaigns may often involve the unsubstantiated accusations that Red Hat customers owe Microsoft money for software patents.

"Linux is a cult that captures the best-and-brightest kids."

--Jim Gray (Microsoft Research)

When it comes to the attack on ODF, we at Boycott Novell have been quite effective at showing was Microsoft was doing in Wikipedia. See for example:

• Microsoft Starts Attacking the ODF Alliance, Sends Paid Wikipedia Editors to ODF Article (Updated)
• OOXML BRM Convenor (Alex Brown) Joins the Pro-Microsoft Wikipedia Spinners
• Microsoft Folks Rewrite ODF's History and Build Anti-ODF Social Network
• Fraunhofer Again Lobbies for Microsoft Lock-in
• Is Microsoft's AstroTurf Against ODF Still On?

Here you can find some of the culprits chatting with Microsoft employees about us. Alex Brown takes some cheap shots too. Glyn Moody meanwhile explains that all those recent events show that "Microsoft Hates - No, *Really* Hates - ODF."

What this means is that Microsoft is only making big money on its Office suite, for whose luxurious margins it must therefore fight tooth and nail. Which, judging by its behaviour at the ISO, and some more recent stories, is exactly what it is doing in the face of growing pressure from open ODF-based alternatives like OpenOffice.org.

The Wall Street Journal more or less confirms Microsoft's fear for the future of Office.

Microsoft Exec: Cloud Computing Could Undermine Margins

Though it's a "huge" revenue opportunity, cloud computing will likely put pressure on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) margins, a senior company executive said Thursday.

The remarks by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, appear to confirm fears that online software products, which Microsoft is rolling out, could undermine the company's margins over the long term.

Reuters wrote about it too and the Business Mirror shows why Microsoft should be nervous.

MICROSOFT Corp.’s increased spending on its search engine and Web-based software may squeeze earnings in the next fiscal year, said Heather Bellini, a UBS AG analyst.

Microsoft apparently responds by sending its familiar pseudo-journalists (Shane O'Neill in this case) to falsely claim that Office is not at risk. Who does O'Neill cite? Forrester, which Microsoft has been paying to attack GNU/Linux.

New research from Forrester shows that while the poor economy has delayed some upgrades to Microsoft Office 2007, most enterprises are sticking with some version of Microsoft's productivity suite over alternatives such as Google Apps.

Forrester has been attacking many Microsoft competitors recently (including Apple and Free software), so it's important to remember all the times Microsoft paid them.

We have also just been warned that Microsoft'AstroTurfing in Twitter is rising. Microsoft pays Federated Media and Waggener Edstrom (where Steve Ballmer's wife is from) to do this type of stuff in Twitter. ⬆