Google Now Officially Microsoft-esque
January 3, 2009
Matt Asay’s headline caught my eye. “Google’s Microsoft-esque Landgrab for IE’s Market Share” discusses the erosion of Internet Explorer’s market share. I commented on this so I won’t review the implications of this market share decline. I want to focus on the word “Microsoft-esque.” I respect CNet, and I think its editors make a effort to choose headlines that are accurate and catchy. The use of the word “Microsoft-esque” makes official that the old order has been by passed. Microsoft snookered IBM. IBM today is a weird amalgam of “to be” software and consulting. The company generates about $100 billion in revenue so its brain trust knows how to make money. But IBM is not on my short list of companies to watch in 2009. Microsoft is now a version of IBM, outpaced and out maneuvered by Google. Google, therefore, is the “new” Microsoft. If CNet sees Google as “Microsoft-esque”, so do I. The hitch in the rope is that I don’t think Google is a Microsoft. Google is different creature, and its competitive impact is disruptive in a way that is different from Microsoft’s in the 1980s. I like “Microsoft-esque”. I just think it is misleading. The GOOG is fission compared to Microsoft’s lubrication function. The differences are more subtle than market grabbing.
Stephen Arnold, January 3, 2009
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