Search Business Called into Question
November 13, 2009
I noted an article on the 247WallSt.com Web site. “Maybe the Search Engine Business Isn’t So Great” raises some interesting questions. Keep in mind that search and retrieval have been around in digital form for decades, but I suppose it is never too late for a canny analyst to revisit ancient history.
The article begins by revisiting the history of Microsoft’s efforts in search. Short take: Microsoft has spent lots of money and lags behind Google in Web search.
For me, the most interesting comment in the article by Douglas A. McIntryre was:
Microsoft says that search is a “strategic” business, a weapon of sorts against Google and other competitors. It is not entirely clear why that is true. Perhaps it is because Google has something that Microsoft does not, but the Google’s leverage from that, beyond making a lot of money, is not clear. Search does not appear to be critical to Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) or SAP (NYSE:SAP), the two largest enterprise software companies in the world. Microsoft must be a special situation, but it has not necessarily made a powerful case of why.
Ouch!
Stephen Arnold, November 13, 2009
No one paid me for this insight, ouch. I want to alert the Housing and Urban Development Department that this intellectual real estate involved neither cash nor loan, deflated or subsidized, in any negotiable paper in the United States of America. Wow, I am glad I am transparent. I feel better.
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