Microsoft Targeting Google, Maybe

[dutter]

Frequent media stories that aim at pushing Microsoft and Google into an all-out battle royale don't really hit the mark according to Microsoft's CEO.

If you're walking down a dark street, and a couple of tough guys step out of the shadows, which CEO would you rather have at your shoulder cracking his knuckles and grinning at the muggers, Steve Ballmer or Eric Schmidt?

I'm taking the ex-Harvard turned Microsoft boss. But despite the frequently combative overtones that have come out of Redmond, Ballmer claimed in comments made at a private event in California that the rivalry isn't quite as overheated as some would like to see.

"Let's not focus on Google. The key is, what about the advertising business model? Have we done everything we need to do to drive advertising as a business model?" InfoWorld reported Ballmer as saying at the Churchill Club and Commonwealth Club in Santa Clara, CA, on Thursday.

Ballmer noted that Microsoft was arriving late to the online advertising game; the company was late in recognizing the importance of search, and it seemed the Internet had to be pressed against Bill Gates' nose before Microsoft really began to embrace the World Wide Web.

"We'd like to be No. 2 and then No. 1 in advertising," Ballmer said of Microsoft's goals. That would mean displacing Yahoo from the number 2 spot as quickly as possible. Should that happen, maybe Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will think more of Microsoft's interest in Yahoo Search.

Ballmer noted Microsoft would pour $1.1 billion into research and development into MSN, and part of that cash would go toward adCenter. He also allowed that getting Microsoft to the dominant place in online advertising could take five years.

Microsoft's CEO also cited some of the strategic thinking behind adCenter:

"In creating AdCenter, we think of it as an eBay for advertising. How do you bring buyers and sellers of advertising together? How do you do it in a way that creates value for both of those?" Ballmer said. "We think we have a lot of ideas around that topic, but in a sense we're a Johnny come lately. The guys that came first were Overture, then Google, and we're late to the game, but we get what's going on."

Whether Microsoft has its efforts aimed at the market with Google in mind or not doesn't matter. By focusing on Internet advertising, Microsoft and Google will start trading elbows in force sooner rather than later.

[jimd4115]

I am really mystified at why Google holds the top position. Can someone explain this to me? The very last engine I use is Google. I always start with MSN, then Yahoo and finally Google. Why? Because it takes much longer to find what you want on Google than on MSN!! This to me smacks of the the old Internet attitude where commercial enterprises were flamed and we all know how that has changed...so do people use Google because someone else says it THE search engine???

Google's SERP are so scrambled as to make it almost usless where MSN always seems to give the most relevant matches, followed closely by Yahoo. Both are far superior in my opinion...but Google has the cache...even if it takes longer to find something...why is that???

And I've been in the Internet biz since 1994 and watched what has happened and I'm still mystifies in PA....

[moneypumps]

Editor's Note: Does Google have five years to live until Google does to it what it did to Novell and Netscape? Is five years not nearly enough time for Microsoft to even start having an impact on Google's lucrative hold on advertising online?

The sad (but true) fact is that the majority of people hate microsoft. Actually the sad (but true) fact is that most people hate to see success. Google so far has managed to evade the ENVIOUS minions because they provide a good service, MSN never has and they have a LONG way to go before then do.

Steve Balmers (now public) desire to bring down Google will only make Google stronger because a LOT more people are affiliated with Google (on a personal level) than are with MS. This foolish aggression from Steve will only consolidate Google's position as the leader in the online advertising field.

I could go more into how Google are benevolent capitalists (a good thing) and how MS are destructive envious monopolistic cheaters, but I wont in this post.

Bottom line is, though Googles "we don't kick chairs across the room and focus on relationship NOT money" stance will will beat MS every time... they aggressive tactics and neanderthal management does not have a place in the modern world.

[smoothunit]

I don't think that at this point it is going to take Microsoft 5 years to rise to the surface. If you have been following Google sitemap groups, there are serious problems there. Thousands, if not millions of peoples sites have been flushed down the toilet. Reports of sites with a half million pages deindexed to a handfull, and worse, disappearing all together. Online business wiped out through BigDaddy beta tests. I have noticed that within the last week posts there have gone from rampant to slowing dramatically. The reasons, no answers from Google. They are laying in the weeds, surfacing only once this week, but any answers were sketchy at best. They have recklessly dumped on millions of little people, ruined there presence, and business and have not clarified why. What I have seen at this point those people are giving up, and moving to different avenues, they can't wait any longer. If Microsoft has any inclination about moving up, it is now. Google is handing it to them on a silver platter. People will race to them in droves at this point, I for one being in that line. Yahoo also could benefit with Microsoft in a very short amount of time, months, if not weeks. The time is ripe, people have had it. Pay attention Microsoft, you could take it now, with the system you have. they are giving it to you! Believe me when I say that millions will follow you, if you act now! Go read the sitemap forum. People are more than ready to move. They joking and saying "Google Who"?

[smoothunit]

In a previous post it is said most people hate Microsoft. That may have been true a couple of months ago, but if you are reading, that whole concept has changed. Now they hate Google. People feel that they have been used and betrayed. They feel Google has boasted their record profits, and left the very people that got them there, drowning in mass search confusion. The deindexing of sites is at a fever pitch, people like never before are talking Micrsoft and Yahoo as their new venues. Everyone jumped on the sitemap train, just to have their websites thrown into oblivion. Lost busines heartache, anger! I have read posts of disabled people making a meagher living to stay off assistance being totally wiped out. Adsense accounts being emptied. Sites paying good money for adwords on a site that now has been deindexed, and shows no search results. All this time Google boasts about record profits. It is over! You watch, they will crumble like a cheap card table! You cannot pee on that many loyal people, offer no explanation, and expect anyone to stand by you. It was search that originally put them on top, by all the little people like myself. "Google Who"??????????????

[digantsavalia]

I guess the future belongs to the company that will carry out search in smarter way. In other words, whichever the company can provide what exactly people are searching for (as organic results as well as the adverts), I dont see any reason why people will change their search habits.

The bottom line is this:

Google: If they keep providing better searches (better local searches, merged with google earth, mobile searches) etc., and keep adwords and adsense simpler, they will be non-beaten.

Threat: I guess the major threat for Google is from Yahoo, and not Microsoft with social searches. Also, the other non-profitable projects must start making money as soon as possible, most promising ones are Google Earth, GMail corporate edition, Local Search and Google Video).

Microsoft: They have to play two games: Beat Yahoo at social searches, and beat Google at technical searches. The turf will get tougher unless Yahoo decides to not to join the race (by selling part of itself to MS, or by focusing on something entirely different activities). They also will have to play on their strength (desktop searches based advertisements, IE in-built adverts etc.) Also have to make AdCenter true "E-Bay" of online adverts.

Threat: Better not focus on beating Google in technical poweres, rather should focus on other tactics (affiliation with Yahoo, finding niche market with desktop search, IE search etc.)

Yahoo: The most underestimated player so far, but they hold promises as well, if they play the cards right. Social search, Yahoo mail, Yahoo Small Business and Yahoo Music will only bring more and more revenues for YSM. On top of that, they will have the advantage of being underdogs, hence people would like to try them to compare them with Google.

Threats: MS might want to buy part of Yahoo. Also, by declaring to be # 2 in search, MS is throwing direct threat to Yahoo (and not Google at first).

No matter how it goes, get ready to watch out another contact sports game of Microsft, again !!!

[dburdon]

Google is no.1 because it's currently the hottest brand on the planet. For now. It's also no.1 becuase search is the hottest market category. For now. Some day soon something new will come along and we'll all wonder why we made so much fuss about Google.

Meanwhile, make hay whilst the sun shines.

[jon50]

I agree; I think that Google's days are numbered as the quality of search results is very poor. I find that when I use Google I get loads of directory or link building sites, a massive over-emphasis on University sites (probably due to the fact that it started out as a University project) and very few decent sites. In fact I only use it to click on the Ad-words links, generally MSN is now a much better search tool.

[kgun]

If you're walking down a dark street, and a couple of tough guys step out of the shadows, which CEO would you rather have at your shoulder cracking his knuckles and grinning at the muggers, Steve Ballmer or Eric Schmidt?

I'm taking the ex-Harvard turned Microsoft boss if I needed tools to defend myself, but still the Google boss if I needed to find a secure place to hide.

[RJ38]

MSN missed the boat by not allowing webmasters to offer their search function with a branded page.

Think about it, the only reason Google became a giant is because everyone used their search. AOL, Yahoo!, not to mention the tens of thousands of websites offering search using Google because Google allows us to use our header on the results pages so it appears the search is part of our own sites. People who had never heard of Google were unknowingly using their search engine.

As for most used website, Yahoo! is, and has for many years ranked #1.

In April, Yahoo led the pack with 105.4 million unique U.S. visitors, an 11 percent increase from last year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. MSN ranked second with 92.8 million visitors, a 6 percent increase from last year, followed closed by Google, whose traffic surged 27 percent during the past year to 92.1 million. AOL's traffic remained flat at 70.4 million, Nielsen/NetRatings said.

Meanwhile, MySpace's traffic -- consisting mostly of teens and young adults -- has more than quadrupled during the past year to 38.4 million U.S. visitors. What's more, MySpace's visitors viewed a total of 19 billion pages on the site in April, surpassing Google (11.9 billion pages), MSN (11.5 billion pages) and AOL (6.8 billion pages).

Yahoo remains the Web's most viewed site, serving up 31.2 billion pages in April, but some analysts believe MySpace's rapid growth foreshadows a changing of the guard.

"The bar keeps getting raised," said Gartner Inc. analyst Mike McGuire. "I think you are going to see constant tweaking because of sites like MySpace."

Remaining the most trafficked and viewed Web site is important to Yahoo because those measures are critical to the advertisers that provide the company with most of its profits.

As it is, Yahoo's earnings haven't been growing rapidly as Google's -- a factor that has weighed on Yahoo's stock price, which has dropped by 21 percent so far this year. Meanwhile, Google's stock price has declined by 9 percent.

Yahoo's shares rose 7 cents to $31.10 in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Google's shares fell $2.34 to $373.86.

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