404 for Microsoft's latest decision

In the middle of a gritty search war, did Microsoft's Steve Ballmer just commit the mother of all mistakes?

I've been wondering about that ever since Microsoft said it would close its Search Books and Live Search Academic projects, thus ceding the field of book digitization to Google. (While both Live Search Books and Live Search Academic are going dark, both Google's Book Search and Google Scholar continue to operate.)

Satya Nadella, who runs Microsoft's Search, Portal and Advertising Platform Group wrote in a blog post that "given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner."

I tried getting through to Nadella on Tuesday for a better explanation, but Microsoft pulled up the drawbridge. Left on my own to speculate, it appears that Microsoft was being penny-wise but pound foolish. (After all, the company was ready to buy nearly $45 billion worth of trouble integrating Yahoo.) Memo to Nadella: When you get sick of hunkering in the bunker, let's talk.

Reading through Nadella's blog post, this much is clear: Microsoft wants to put its search marbles into programs like Cashback (the new Microsoft service that rebates people to buy products online) where there's better potential for a material payback. But the search competition with Google is also partly a popularity test. Consider the following:

•  Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand rightly pointed out to The New York Times that while the number of people using search book services is relatively small, it's an influential lot with researchers and librarians and other earlier adopters. Don't underestimate the prestige factor.

• Participation in the project allowed Microsoft to promote itself as being one of the good guys. The Open Content Alliance says it won't scan books without first receiving permission of copyright owners. Google was sued by authors and publishers over its decision to scan copyrighted snippets without permission. Google argued that the works fell under the category of fair use. Rightly or not, however, Google was pilloried as a bad actor in this novella.

Sullivan sums it up nicely when he writes that "Microsoft got mileage out of the idea it was working with the Open Content Alliance as the "good" book search partner not encumbered by controversy that the Google Book Search service has encountered.

Now Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive is left scratching his head how to replace Microsoft's financial support for the consortium. A decade removed from its antitrust battle with the government, Microsoft's not as uniformly dreaded as it once was. Maybe Microsoft believes it's in a position where it doesn't need to buy goodwill any more. Still, you can never have enough friends.

[The_Decider]

Another day, another failed project at Microsloth.

It is all for the good, the less presence that MS has on the internet the better it will be. If they don't go back to their core they are going to find their rate of irrelevancy increasing by several orders of magnitude every year. It is not that MS needs to buy goodwill, it is more likely that they realized that they aren't fooling anybody these days.

[sumthin]

I love how cnet can armchair quarterback ANYTHING. No matter what msft decides, its wrong in the all-knowing eyes of cnet. Msft builds this service, and its panned and then ignored. Then msft decides to shelve it and cnet does a 180 too. Its a real shame that cnet's record at product management isn't stronger, or perhaps we'd believe them. But look no further than cnet the company for a true disaster story. They shouldn't advise anyone, with that sort of track record. I hope their new bosses at cbs cut DEEP when they clean up the cnet house.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Another day, another failed attempt by The_Decider to have a clue.

Have you considered the idea that you might be out of touch? Your comments seem to reflect fanaticism and not reality. The real world is where we live and work in. You may not like Microsoft, and indeed respond to all things about Microsoft with such vile hatred and vitriole as to make you look like a slobbery rabid chihuahua piddling all over itself in order to bark out your same tired unsupported rants.

Try something new- like making a point. It may get more attention.

[sumthin]

I love how nobody mentioned this site as a good idea, until msft decides to shelve it. But thats what we've come to appreciate from cnet's backseat driving. It so easy for cnet's editors and authors to make decisions - unless its about cnet itself, which has been nothing but a failure these last few years. Hope your new bosses at cbs cut DEEP to get cnet back on true journalist legs again.

[sumthin]

I love how cnet can armchair quarterback ANYTHING. No matter what msft decides, its wrong in the all-knowing eyes of cnet. Msft builds this service, and its panned and then ignored. Then msft decides to shelve it and cnet does a 180 too. Its a real shame that cnet's record at product management isn't stronger, or perhaps we'd believe them. But look no further than cnet the company for a true disaster story. They shouldn't advise anyone, with that sort of track record. I hope their new bosses at cbs cut DEEP when they clean up the cnet house.

[sumthin]

I love how cnet can armchair quarterback ANYTHING. No matter what msft decides, its wrong in the all-knowing eyes of cnet. Msft builds this service, and its panned and then ignored. Then msft decides to shelve it and cnet does a 180 too. Its a real shame that cnet's record at product management isn't stronger, or perhaps we'd believe them. But look no further than cnet the company for a true disaster story. They shouldn't advise anyone, with that sort of track record. I hope their new bosses at cbs/viacom cut DEEP when they clean up the cnet house.

[sumthin]

testing

[shmooth2]

i actually hate microsoft now more than i ever did. i wonder how other folks feel.

[eadeguzman]

Hey Coop, we get it. You hate Microsoft. Not sure why you like reporting on them so much. Very professional. Keep it up. Have a life.