Microsoft’s Search Ambitions
October 2, 2008
I hope that the Daily Telegraph survives the coming Ice Age for newspapers. This paper often contains articles I find useful and often amusing. British humor. Nothing like it. Click here to read “Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Sets Out Internet Search Ambitions” by Dominic White, the communications editor. (I don’t know what that title means, but Mr. White does a good interview.)
Several points jumped out at me:
Mr. White reports that Microsoft wants to become number two in search. The stunning point was, “Acquiring Yahoo! is not key to becoming number two in search.” Wow. Quite a statement after the stock buy back and the tanking of Yahoo’s shares.
Next, Mr. White presents this Mr. Ballmer statement: “Sure, should we have embraced the opportunity in search and online advertising a few years earlier? The answer is yes,” admitted Mr Ballmer. “But there is nothing to be afraid of. It’s all upside, we have a small market share, we are David, Goliath is out there, the opportunity is ours and we need to seize it.” Could time be running out?
The last point that adhered to my addled goose brain was this passage:
The Microsoft boss also had few words for the first ‘Googlephone’, the mobile handset which was unveiled last week and uses Android, the search engine company’s rival operating system to Windows Mobile. “It’s a V1,” laughed Mr Ballmer. “They got a long way to go. A long way to”.
Harsh words for a product that is not yet available, a bit like the forthcoming Microsoft Cloud OS.
Stephen Arnold, October 2, 2008
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