Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is an exciting company -- arguably the most intriguing company of my generation. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), on the other hand, has always been that rich, monopolistic giant that charged a lot of money for software. However, recent events are changing the way Microsoft is being perceived. It is no longer the big, scary, monolithic, gray monstrosity of the 90s and early 00s, and I daresay Google is losing its grip on the title of the funky “Do No Evil” upstart.
From the start, Google has been about openness, sharing, free stuff, and more. Its idealistic mission statement -- “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” -- gets people like me pretty motivated. In fact, I’ve said publicly on more than one occasion that Google is the only brand I’d consider “selling my entrepreneurial soul” to.
For years, Microsoft has been ideologically resistant to free markets and has viewed open-source software as a serious threat. As I discovered the open source movement, I grew more and more resentful and cynical toward Microsoft. It didn’t take much convincing to get me to switch to applications like Open Office and eventually Mac and OSX. However, things have happened at Redmond headquarters in recent times that are shifting the software giant in a very different direction.
Consider the following events and changes in Microsoft that are spawning very different opinions about the company, in both tech and business spheres:
Robert Scoble's phenomenally successful example of how to change the perception of a brand through "corporate blogging," whether he was mandated to do so or not, changed the way thousands, maybe millions, of people regarded Microsoft.
Microsoft’s investment in Facebook shows a real commitment to the social Web (Web 2.0).
Microsoft’s designs on Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) show a real intention to provide competitive search and advertising platforms for publishers on the Web.
See this post and its 600 comments for a taste of how the developer community feels about Microsoft’s increasingly "open" and pro-standards approach.
Though Apple’s iPod still owns the portable multimedia player device market, the unquestionable success of Microsoft’s entertainment sub-brands, Xbox and Zune, is powerful because the direct result is an entire generation of young gaming enthusiasts who know nothing of Microsoft’s history -- antitrust trials and penalties, the OS wars, etc. To today’s teenagers Microsoft is the cool brand behind Halo 3. Not bad.
Bill Gates’s impending exit from the company is not important because Bill Gates is a bad leader -- on the contrary, he’s built up one hell of an empire -- but rather it’s significant because he signifies for many of us, fairly or not, the old Microsoft.
OK, so it is presumptuous of me to infer that one interview could make a monumental difference? But Guy Kawasaki’s interview of Steve Ballmer at MIX08 recently was a revelation -- and I really got the sense of a watershed moment for the company. I may be wrong, and perhaps I was just caught up in the hype and PR of the moment, but it was a big moment in my opinion… and many others feel the same.
Why is this shift happening? Is it just a perception, or is Microsoft making a conscious effort to change the game, while Google battles the inevitable struggles of being an enormous corporation? Could it be that Microsoft’s almost-underdog status in certain areas of modern computing (especially online) puts it in good standing for the future, especially considering the massive financial backing it has?
You see, as Google grows ever bigger and more influential, with board members and shareholders to report to, it stands to lose so much more. It’s directly proportionate. The more you have, the more paranoid you are about losing it. Google is now the leading player on the Web. When you’re in front you’re a target.
Microsoft, as I’ve said before, is currently the underdog. It has an inferior search platform, pretty random email services, and, well, that’s about it. But suddenly, through products like Silverlight, investments and acquisitions in key Web properties, and enough money to give Google a fright if Microsoft does buy Yahoo, it's rising from relative online obscurity and into significance.
Google is more dominant and influential than ever before, but with that comes the need to be a mega-corporation and the danger of being out in front. Microsoft has all the money in the world, a carefully mapped out strategy, and an all-new, more-open-than-ever approach to the Web and the community that makes it function.
— Mike Stopforth, South African Web 2.0 entrepreneur, writer, and speaker
I agree that microsoft is being forced to change because of the way times have changed. It is likely that much of their change is due to the way newer companies are doing business in today's world.
I suppose it is possible that google would have played the same way that microsoft did if they had both started at the same time.
It seems that google wants to use the adage that the best experience may be someone elses, and that is what makes them behave the way they have in todays market.
One thing that does appear quite certain is that the dominance of google in the search world has positioned them to be taking fire from other companies wishing they could be the belle of the ball.
The pace seems to be quickening also. Thanks for raising the issue Mr. Stopforth.
I mainly agree with you Murugan. This graphic visualization out of Mother Jones points out a lot of interesting things related to the current power struggle in computing.
When looking at the market value of Google and Microsoft (in march/april '07 at least) it turns out that Microsoft almost doubles Google. Apple, with its market value of 109 billion isn't even on the chart. These figures seem to suggest that it's not only hard cash that counts these days, but also public appearance and momentum. As can be seen in the same graph, Microsoft has been around way longer than Google and Yahoo––and seems to have sticked to its 1980s business ethos for too long. On the other hand: Apple has been around longer than Microsoft, yet has been able to adapt to the sign of the times.
It's lonely at the top, and when you reach it to there you will get picked on. This is what starts happening to Google now, and they could have seen it coming. In my view, Google only in perception can be seen as the new Microsoft. Both companies' strategies traditionally have been so far apart however, that I can't see why Google would be hated for the same reasons as Microsoft used to be despised. I think it's mainly Google role as supposed leader of the pack that makes people question its intentions. Would you agree?
It seems as many of Microsoft's major competitors notably Google and Apple
have moved to the head of the pack amongst the most dominant companies in the
world, the attacks on Microsoft have subsided.As you mentioned, companies such as Google and Apple have wrested
majority of the media attention away from Microsoft.
The mediocre entrance of Vista created at
best ripples throughout the world instead of the usual colossal waves as with
their previous versions of Windows.This
certainly has also contributed to Microsoft being pushed off the main stage.We are at a point now where we can choose from
other really good operating systems that can compete with Vista.
Mr. Gates departure certainly creates a fresh face for Microsoft as they
venture into new business opportunities and the web frontier.This is a necessity for their survival.They have been knocked down by Google with
full force that they needed to reinvent their strategic goals to produce new
products and services for the web.
It is certainly not an easy challenge for Microsoft to surpass Google because;
Google is a very smart organization that is well aware of how to play
successfully in the today’s new global economy.
Nevertheless, Microsoft does have enormous financial resources providing
them the opportunity to rebrand, reorganize, and adapt to today’s new rules of
the online arena.Despite their loss of
the number one spot the are still one of the Shaq’s of the business world.
The writing has been on the wall for quite sometime that the focus of the tech world is nowmon Google. At least for now, they cannot replace interms of market capitalization but certainly they getting more scrutiny now as this piece suggested:
I think both Google and Microsoft dominance reflects a product of their times. Google would mostly have played the same rules as microsoft did in the 80s and 90s had it been in existence then. What we now see in the way Goolge operates reflects the times in which we are now. Many businesses and corporations have suffer serious loss and some to even extinction for simply not responding to the 'prevailing wind'. As you rightly mentioned, being at the top brings with it added pressure and expectations and how Google responds both now and the long time remains to be seen.
Should this 'old microsoft' like behaviour by Google scare us into submission to their whims and caprices? Certainly not!! As this article pointed out, it's time to put our thinking caps to do exactly what Google did over theyears to out paced Microsoft:
Ultimately the digital age is about data. MS has been king of accessing that data through OSs and Apps. Once the public became internet aware, content was positioned to be come the result of that access. Google provides that access in one way or another and the technology behind the access is secondary.
There will exist a world, ultimately, where the concept of an OS or App is not even a thought, sort of like "what brand stering wheel is in your automobile?" as the app and os will no longer be of consequence. Even the widget (gadget) utilized will become less important if we look back to the day when just about every US home had a black rotary phone secured to the wall or counter top and brand or style did not matter the the vast majority of consumers.
Ultimately Google is the pioneer company, not the first or the last, that has provided an awareness of data to the masses, first and foremost. I view Google as a massive librarian and how they choose to manage, disribute, and make available the archives of existance is a monumental balancing act.
I do not know if this position is good or bad. I suspect it is neither, but the result will be the determining factor and hopefully will not be washed, cleaned, and sterilized amidst a marketing created perception when the end game is all about the content.
Microsoft knows all this. It will be very interesting to see how they respond, if they respond, or if they try to take us down a yet undiscovered path.
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Why would developing nations experience the Web differently from "First World" countries, if the Web is borderless? Is there a lesson in this trend for apps and services wanting to break into new markets?
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
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