Google Microsoft: He Said, She Said
June 10, 2009
The battle between Google and Microsoft will be fascinating. I don’t know if I will enjoy the thrashing of the professional journalists, pundits, and mavens more than the jibes, japes, and jousts between Googlers and Microsoft softies. Toss up.
Example: Reuters carried a story with the headline: “Bing and Google Get Testy” here. The idea is that Bing’s market share is or is not rising faster than the temperature of my aging 1974 Pontiac Grandville convertible. Chris Thomspon of of The Big Money, listed as the author of the Reuters’ story, wrote:
With 793 tests, Bing took an early lead, beating Google 38 percent to 36 percent. Then Matt Cutts, a Google employee, pointed out on FriendFeed that Kordahi works for Microsoft. “I worry a little bit about self-selection bias,” he wrote. As the tests came pouring in, Google retook the lead, but Yahoo came roaring down the track and jumped ahead with 45 percent of the vote. That, everyone began to think, was a little too pat. “Yahoo is rising suspiciously fast,” declared Google Blogoscoped writer Philipp Lensen. “Perhaps the poll is being hacked.” Indeed, Kordahi eventually yanked all the poll results altogether, complaining about “some douche gaming the system.” Hmmm. There’s gotta be a better way to build buzz than this, Carol Bartz.
Wow, one paragraph cites folks from a range of companies and sources, including the top Yahooligan.
Step back:
“New” is a potent world today. Once the “new” wears off, marketers figure out how to introduce another variation of spaghetti sauce. The problem with new is that most “new” products are not. So, hype, novelty, and dust ups take center stage.
The key points in my mind have little to do with Bing, Web search, or even the individuals who represent Google and Microsoft. In my opinion, here’s what’s happening:
- Google is playing slow chess. Microsoft is playing speed chess. Advantage: Google. Microsoft is in a hurry and Google is not. In fact, the company is just now beginning to push directly at Microsoft because the company for the first time is vulnerable on several fronts. Google’s probes are increasing in frequency and are more overt. The Outlook connector is a recent example. Small probe but the first of many I suggest.
- The Bing Google search battle is over. The appeal of “new” is short lived and Google has about 70 percent of Web users defining search as “google”. Microsoft will have to pull some rabbits from its hat to make a dent in this type of market share. Closing the gap will take years. It took Google years to build its share, and I don’t see a reversal any time soon.
- The squabbles are PR chaff, just like the junk tossed from aircraft to befuddle crude radar. The real activity is taking place elsewhere. Think dataspace.
What’s a dataspace? Sigh. That’s where the action is.
Stephen Arnold, June 10, 2009
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Interesting… But what sign on novelties of the news?