Comments on: Microsoft still trying to answer Google's wake-up call

Software chief Ray Ozzie says the company is making headway in building an ad engine and online services, but opportunities remain.

[ballssalty]

Not pleased...

"I think you'll actually be quite surprised--quite pleased with the results."

Um, actually no. The page is cluttered, there doesn't appear to be any organization of the results and the results did not match what I was looking for. So no, not pleased at all. WebMD does a better job (not that I think they're any good either really).

[LarryLo]

MS is not an Internet company....

Folks...I don't mean to point out the obvious but MS is simply Not "an internet company". Period...full stop.

I don't think they will ever be able to compete with google, yahoo, or myspace....never mind the avalanche of new rich GUI (Web 2._ is (c))and social networking sites.

Why? cause they are an application and OS company. They are too big...to Corporate and too Quarterly numbers driven to really break through do something amazing and new. Don't get me wrong they can definitely use the internet (by sort of bolting on IP Capabilities and www to their apps) but its no different than Oracle creating a web interface to their Databases software. They might even be the plumbing to the internet with their ASP and .NET (not really, but for arguments sake), but that does not make them an Internet player.

So can they throw their money and weight around to survive in this brave new world of Ad revenue, Search, social networked widgets, OS irrelevant application..yes of course. They still ARE MS.

Will they ever beat any of the other SE...Nope They will always be an "also ran"...the days of waiting for market to mature and jumping in at the last minute to overtake, or proprietary closed protocols and file formats...are over.

what will they do now?

[Commander_Spock]

"what will they do now?"!

A very good option is to release the rest of the "Source-Codes" it is holding for the 800lb Gorilla (OS/2) to IBM for it to roam freely in the wild like some "hogs" do! Which, according to the reports... the meat is leaner (in essence, there goes the loss of Windows OS "bloat-ware" by allowing OS/2 to run in the wild freely among all the net-savvy applications - Lotus Notes and all)!

[t8]

Correct

MS have never understood the Internet because they are too focussed on software for PCs.
The Internet belongs to those companies that are 110% focussed innovations for the Internet.
That is why everybody googles.

It all started back in the days of the proprietry MSN network.
They tried to compete with the Internet, then they decided to embrace it but only for the sake of making Windows relevant in the new Internet age.
They then went hard out (actually too far) to win the browser war and then they said OK that's it. We did it and then stopped.

While they stayed still, Firefox, Google, MySpace, and others crept up and have overtaken them.

Meanwhile Microsoft has to keep their focus on Windows and that pretty much guarantees that they will never be a dominating force on the Internet platform.

The problem for MS is Windows is too lucrative to try and focus elsewhere, but deep down they know that they are handing the Internet to the likes of Google who will and are making a ton of money from it.

Telcos face a similar problem. Do they embrace VOIP and cannabilise their own existing business, or milk their old systems for what they can and let someone else make the money from VOIP, which they too know is the future.

[Commander_Spock]

But For The Trees...

... that Ossie and some of those on the REDMOND CAMPUS now seem to be saying (re: "Beyond advertising, the second major influence of Google on Microsoft has been to point to the importance of being able to offer software-based services, he noted. Ozzie made several references to work Microsoft is doing behind the scenes to build a companywide services engine. All of its business units will be able to tap into the engine to add services components to their products, and those tools eventually will be available outside Redmond as well.

"We've been building that services platform," Ozzie said. "The economies of scale that we gain internally are going to be available to third-party developers and enterprises.") in that they cannot see the "FOREST" that is the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

LOTUS NOTES 8.0 (HANNOVER) anyone!

http://www-142.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/products/product4.nsf/wdocs/hannover

[t8]

Are you a bot?

A talkbot.

[ashgilpincom]

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