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Google's Patents Reveal Strategy To Beat Microsoft
linumax writes "According to 'The Google Legacy,' history is about to repeat itself. From the article: 'Microsoft today is where IBM was years ago. And Google is in a position to do to Bill Gates what he did to IBM. The result could be a new industry kingpin. Arnold, author of The Google Legacy, said in an interview this week that it appears that Microsoft doesn't understand Google in much the same way that IBM didn't understand Microsoft 20 years ago. "It will be the Googleplex from 2004 to 2020 - a network paradigm," said Arnold. "It will be enabled by Google's approach to innovation."'"
in 2020, everyone in /. will be bashing google. History will repeat itself.
var sig = function() { sig(); }
That's OK. According to Baldy, Google will not be around long enough to enjoy it.
2 i'll+kill+google%22&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=microsoft+%2
linumax writes "According to 'The Google Legacy,' history is about to repeat itself. From the article: 'Microsoft today is where IBM was years ago. And Google is in a position to do to Bill Gates what he did to IBM. The result could be a new industry kingpin. Arnold, author of The Google Legacy, said in an interview this week that it appears that Microsoft doesn't understand Google in much the same way that IBM didn't understand Microsoft 20 years ago. "It will be the Googleplex from 2004 to 2020 - a network paradigm," said Arnold. "It will be enabled by Google's approach to innovation."'"
Comparing MS and IBM is flawed imo. IBM was the big company before the rise of personal computers that felt it was unstoppable in its world, and did not have the foresight to see that personal computing would someday overtake server style computing. They truely thought that only big corporations would need computers.
MS on the other hand is aware, paranoid actualy that they will be dethroned. While their leaders may act out in stupid and juvinile ways (throwing chairs anyone?), they are aware of the problem and will fight tooth and nail to keep from being dethroned.
Microsoft write an operating system and Office suite - their cash cows.
Google's cash cow is google adwords and google adsense.
Where's the competition between the two? where's the overlap in markets with REAL income, not late 1990s tech bubble crap that doesn't actually bring in $$ to the companies.
Then, 20 years from now, compuglobalhypermeganet will re-revolutionize the industry by introducing the 'Toster' paradigm; google (and everyone else for that matter) will be unable to understand this company's buisness model, and thus they will become the industries new kingpin.
"The Google Legacy" (Infonortics, $180.00 per download) is available in online PDF version only.
$180 for some guy's opinion on google, go fuck yourself.
History has a tendancy to repeat itself. However, i doubt it that we'll see the same situation.
If anyone is going to kill Microsoft, it wont be Google.
From TFA
"In a broader sense, Arnold believes Google is building a "patent fence around search" technology as the firm moves to codify its unique competitive advantage."
Is this good or bad?
To say nothing of the fact that Microsoft got a free ride from IBM to their current position; I can't see MS doing the same favour for Google, can you?
And finally, why would anyone want to rely on a net connection to be able to write a letter, or trust a remote company to hold their data, or basically use any of these web-technologies pundits keep claiming are the next big thing? The world of users was ebullient when it shook off the shackels of having to connect to a mainframe to do work; why would they want to give that freedom up? Normal users, that is - I can see some attractions for stupid PHBs in companies. Google Maps is good, but would I rather have it running on my machine? Damn right I would!
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
He thinks Google is tuffer than Microsoft. Buy his book to find out if he is right.
insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
During my studies in history I've learned that history _never_ repeats itself. Simply because if there's a situation _similar_ to one from the past there are a lot of factors that are simply completely different.
Regards,
Dennis B. Schramm
Sigs suck!
... will it run Linux?
By selling advertising? Great for google. But what about me? I'm going to be inundated with advertising and products that never come out of beta? Or will they release "Google OpenSolaris"? Oh, maybe they'll introduce "for pay" google? That's when I switch to yahoo.
.. I'd be shitting bricks over Apple.
Anyway, if I was Microsoft
When they release OS X for x86 that can install on general computers, people will be screwed. Corporations may switch to Apple because there won't be fear of single vendor hardware lock in (no need to pay $$ for xpensive replacement parts). And most damning for microsoft the overall cost of Windows will have to drop to $49.99 resulting in mad revenue decline.
Plus due to Napster's totally lame advertising, and mp3 player competitor's lack of design ability, Apple will make buttloads of $$ off entertainment devices like how Sony did in the 80's and 90's. Only way Apple can lose momentum is if the price of flash drops to $1 or less a gig. And they have to compete with $9.99 mp3 players.
I don't have any money to invest, but sitting on the sidelines I really love and am rooting for this company. Go google.
Don't tell Microsoft, you'll ruin Google's secret plans!
Simply ship Internet Explorer with a adblock feature that blocks Google's ads, then Google's revenue stream gets turned off overnight.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
in parent post I meant to say microsoft will be screwed .. not people will be screwed. People will benefit obviously!!
Is this good or is it wack?
This all sounds like a rehash of the AOL strategy or making customers believe their product "is the internet". I have a hard time beleiving that a new competitor can make a market with the same strategy in this jaded consumer market. Bandwidth really isn't an issue until the video content on the web is as plentiful as the text content. And I don't see that happening any time soon.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I wasn't really worried about Google's intentions until I've seen the latest "features" they added to their homepage.
You might have noticed the: "Personalized Home" thing at the top left of your browser.
In order to implement this feature, Google, obviously needs to know who is actually looking at the page, so that it could then personalize it - therefore, you need to "Sign In" to use the page.
To me, this seems like a way to masquerade their true intentions.
By "Signing in" you're actually letting Google know more information then it requires...
You're not only "Personalizing" their homepage, but you're actually creating a mapping between a "user" and a "search".
In other words, Google would now have the ability to know (same account as GMail) which user looked for what - beyond GMail (where they know what each user read).
If you combine all this data, you get a HUGE database containing personal information.
You'd be surprised how much one could learn just by looking at another person's search queries.
I'm sure that in the following years Google would unveil many more features that would practically lead to them having access to ALL of our personal information.
They're just taking it slowly, one step at a time.
This seems to me like a privacy nightmare.
Are we to let Google have all this information, while we sit aside, hoping they'll protect our data based solely on our good faith?
Remember, that by not using their services, you're private information is not protected.
It's enough that 1 person would have your contact information on his GMail account, another would have your e-Mail and some questions you asked. Google would just have to cross-refer and find whatever they like.
Sigs are for the weak.
then theres the 'minor' issue of an anti-trust lawsuit which microsoft would probably lose, along with the masses of bad publicity for blocking google.
Then, 20 years from now...
in the year 2525... if Bill is still alive... if Google can survive... they may find....
If I was more creative (read: had my coffee already), I'd probably be able to crank out a parody. oh well.
=)
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Yup. They invented the search engine. And web based e-mail. And keyword based advertising.
Nothing wrong with using other people's ideas. They have implemented them better than their competition (I use gmail, personalized search, etc). But their products are not revolutionary despite what their fans may thinh.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
If they did that then there would a lawsuit of gargantuan proportions even before the third dupe of the story on slashdot.
Not even microsoft can deliberately attempt to kill a competitor like that... they have to be a *bit* more subtle.
Google rules the web, Microsoft rules the desktop (and has a sizeable arm in the server market). I think it's fair to say that Google isn't all that related to Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft and Google have overlapping interests, but Microsoft's main income comes from Windows, and from Office.
/. article). Linux is a Windows killer, we don't see Windows being used less. We see that people are stopping the switch to Firefox, switching back from Linux, staying with Windows and Microsoft Office, despite these "MS-Killers". Google will stay, but it's not going to compete with Microsoft unless it starts an OS war.
Does Google have Google OS? No.
Does Google have Google Office? No.
Does Google have free email? Yes.
Does Google have a search system? Yes.
Where Google competes with Microsoft, it succeeds, where Google doesn't, the industry is owned my Microsoft. And don't say OpenOffice or StarOffice or Linux is going to be killing MS anytime soon. StarOffice 7 was an MS Office killer, what happened to it? Nowhere. StarOffice 6 was an MS Office killer, what happened to it? So was version 5. Linux is meant to be better, but it's not gaining inroads in anywhere but the server market. It might be getting ready to approach the desktop market, but it's not going to do it successfully. And in the server market, Linux servers are used less than Windows servers (35% Windows, 35% Unix, 30% Linux, FreeBSD's in there somewhere SOURCE:
I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
Uh... IBM's revenues for 2004 were in the $96B range, with profits in the $8.4B range. http://www.ibm.com/investor/1q05/1q05earnings.phtm l Pooooor IBM, Pooooor MS...
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
What is that? The real time guardian in talk? Nothing obvious here: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define:rtg
MS thinks they are the king because they think software is the real source of value. Google is out to prove that services (search, gmail, froogle, adwords, etc.) are the real source of value.
MS knows this and is trying to get into services, but I wonder if MSN search et al are the OS/2 of the day -- a dinosaur's attempt to compete on a changed playing field.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Well... let's just hope the Google motto rules the day.
Don't be evil. (or something like that)
However, in a market economy where ruthlessness is required to protect assets, I don't see how Google can compete with a company like MS, WITHOUT being evil. The question it, how will the fallout affect normal people. Will the fallout be evil?
Ignore Alien Orders
I, for one, welcome our new non-gorilla overlords!
http://slashdot.su/
To confirm you're not a script,
please type the word in this image: inhuman
I'm not exactly feeling comfortable these days.
I thought this was to be the digital age of openness. That we would be free to use whatever software we liked, because programs can exchange information freely thanks to technologies like XML/XSLT and applications will run on any system because the source is open and modern languages are designed with portability in mind. Why oh why would we put ourselves in the position where single company rules the world again? Its for this reason that I think this guy is full of it. Yes, Google want to gain ground on Microsoft... who doesn't? If Google really wanted to improve the world they would be in tight negotiations with Apple, Linux, *BSD and Sun so that they can do the above - share data and applications between hetrogenous systems. Its not impossible, its greate for the consumer, and its greate for these companies. How many CEOs could really say that being beholden to a single company is good for share holders? But at the same time CEOs like Microsoft, because they make it easy to buy software - no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft. The vision is already coming true. There is a reason why Java did so well in the enterprise market - freedom to choose container providers, operating system and hardware vendor whilst only doing minimal porting for each choice. The next step is for the same CEOs that made that descision to start looking for the similar technologies on the desktop. Its not going to be Java. Its not going to be C/C++. It could be Mono/.Net, but I doubt it. The fact is that whilst Google / Apple / Linux / Sun / Linux and *BSD don't have a lingua franca Microsoft arn't going anywhere.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Companies that do well against microsoft specfically DON'T try to compete head to head with them. Microsoft's strategy has always been to bait a competitor to compete on their turf and then steamroller them.
It's been proven that if you create a product that's good, that people want to buy AND you don't sit on your ASS while Microsoft copies and then bundles your product with windows, you CAN succeed and flourish.
Remember....you don't have to BEAT Microsoft in order to win.
Actually, I don't think they do have to be subtle about it. Adblockers are legal, and it wouldn't surprise me if ad/popup blocking was the most requested feature for IE7.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Get real. There has not been any real innovation for a long time.
Agreed, there has been a lot of evolution.. But innovation ceased a long time ago.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If there is one company I see succeeding in bringing linux to the masses it is Google. Too bad they aren't into the game (yet). They seem to have an understanding of the less is more attitude that makes average users happy (even those who swear they need more features instead of less).
And they have that intangible extra quality to bring services to the desktop that others can't do as easily as them, much the same way as Apple incorporated "digital lifestyle" doodahs in their OS (iLife), to which MS still is clueless, even with their Home Theatre ventures (which I personally think is a good idea desperately in need of sensible execution).
I hope it's by now proven that it's not by mimicking king MS that you'll beat them, it's by going one further while at the same time covering the bases.
Apple does it pretty well for a rather small but vocal audience, linux makes assorted computer wizards happy, who however are totally clueless to what an average user is (the mithical Joe Sixpack) and will keep proclaiming next year to be the year of Linux desktop, somehow believing that at that year everybody will change into them (commandline wizards). And meanwhile MS sees everything is well.
Google could do some real damage to the crowd that doesn't really care but is fed up nevertheless without a clue as to what to do about it.
I do hope they won't try any clever name (like googlix) and go for something like Google Desktop or the like.
I think, therefore I am...I think.
We are not better off if google beats microsoft. The new boss is the same as the old boss, just different methods.
d HumanProgramming/2005/09/21.html#a200
..."
For what google is up to: http://radio.weblogs.com/0103955/categories/stupi
"They are building a real time customer profile on your real identity. This is a very valuable commodity as it gives google the ability to sell high value campaigns to advertisers.
This may are may not seem obvious to you, but it struck me in a tetris like way how all the bricks fit together if you are trying to build up a real time customer categorization system that can be used across all properties. Other companies might do the same thing using a portfolio approach. But google has taken a less direct Sun Tzu Art of War approach.
If you notice google doesn't create word processors or accounting programs. Almost everything they do is about getting content and getting you to provide an identity to them.
"According to 'The Google Legacy,' history is about to repeat itself."
History never repeats itself. I guess this guy is a little optimistic if he thinks folks will pay 180 dollars for a cliche that isn't true in the first place. Ebay is the place to sell cliches, I guess.
"When you have a problem with Windows, always reformat and reinstall" - what am I bid, $150, $180, $200??!
"Linux is the wave of the future" - opening at $8, no $10 to the gentleman on my right with the beard and sandals
"No one ever got fired for buying IBM" - we have telephone bids for $500
Besides, it's a bit premature to talk about the "legacy" of an outfit that's till in its infancy. Microsoft has $50 billion in cash, annual profits of around $12 billion and a vast monopoly. They aren't just going to roll over, stick their legs in the air and die.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
IBM had already recognized that PCs were a real market, they has long since stopped believing that only big corporations would need computers. But they used their foray into the PC market to give Microsoft the monopoly it has now. They were stupid, not ignorant.
Microsoft is the same way, they know that people are hoping to make the OS unimportant, and move to portable network based applications. But they are too stupid to do anything about it. They even have the xbox part of the company working to help kill off the windows part of the business. They are stupid, not ignorant.
First of all, microsoft is threatened by everybody because microsoft tries to be into everything.
So, saying ms is threatened by google ( or anything/anyone else) is a no-brainer. This, by the way, pretty much describes the so-called author.
"In Arnold's analysis, he said some filings in the patent portfolio point to an accelerated use of high-speed fiber and wireless that could be used to deliver Google technology."
This isn't about how ms doesn't understand google. It about how Stephen E. Arnold doesn't understand the internet. It sounds as though he thinks google is going to try to build its own version of the internet, just for its own traffic. Next, they'll have special 'google' stations that only go to google, placed in coffee houses everywhere Then, you can buy one from google along with goole networking connections into your home with their ubquitous googled worldwide high-speed banana-peel-driven fiber network. Or, just use the worldwide google wireless network (that prioritizes google traffic over microsoft searches). All other wireless networks would of course just fall my the wayside.
It looks more like this Arnold character doesn't understand the idea of a feasible business model.
If this guy can get a book published, I should be able to get my used toilet paper published, no problem. Who's his publisher?
--
So many clueless people, so little time...
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
...but I find all that kind of sensacional articles, thoughts, opinions like "the $a is killer of $b", "$c in future will beat shit out of $d, for sure!" useless and trash. At least for me, it DOESN'T matter who will win and how - as long as choice is left to me, not to some kind of majority.
Yeah, yeah, I know, everyone will claim now that it is important will Microsoft stay in future as powerful as it is now, will Google rulle search for at least five, years... Hmmm, I haven't seen anything they have to offer to me. Apple/PC hardware, Linux/BSD interesting project news, things which actually works - that matters.
It seems to me that Slashdot turned into some kind of investiment newsletter - "see, it's mee, it's mee, you should invest in me, I will beat Microsoft, well, after ten years maybe, okei, it is too late, but look at the screenshots!"
Even those stories about Xbox hacking, watercooling, etc. is much more interesting that such drivel.
I would like to see more stories about real difficulties and solutions for open source music recording, desktop publishing, mixed systems (OS X, Windows, Linux, BSD in one network), etc. It is stuff WHAT matters.
I just don't get it - does it is very important now? Microsoft will stay and Google will stay too. Maybe we should find a way to live along?
Maybe slashdot should think about some kind of integrity? Editors, please?
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Google is in no way shape or form a Microsoft company. Microsoft is a solid company that makes software, hardware, and a crap-ton of other things. They are not a "one really whizbang product" kind of company. I'm not an MS fan boy by any meas, but lets face facts here, MS is bigger, stronger, and richer than google. No questions asked, they are, period.
However, this brings up an interesting problem. Everyone thinks that MS is going to fail, but give them time, they have just recently announced that they plan to topple google. Let me remind everyone of some past MS "failures" and company's that "Couldn't be beat". Lets start out a little early ...
*Cue the flashback music*
Remember when the PC was something that was really expensive and that no one really knew what to do with except it could be used as a fancy typewriter and play games? Remember when there were a few company's at the time (for this flashback we'll only acknowledge two) Microsoft and Apple. Apple was going to revolutionize the world with the MAC. Moral of the story ... how many Mac's are there in comparison to PC's running windows?
*Cue more flashback music*
Remember when Mosaic and Navigator were the best kids on the block for viewing gopher:// and http:/// sites? Wow, those were the days. You had to pay for a copy of netscape ... PAY FOR A BROWSER. Life was good, then Mosaic's IP got bought by this weird company called Microsoft. And ... wouldn't you know it, they released Internet Explorer. Well one thing led to another and ... Moral of the story ... how many people use Internet Explorer now?
*Cue a Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the fire*
Now we find ourselves in the world of Office suite software. No longer is the office suite a word processor! No! In this world there is email, word processing, typesetting, flyer making, and who knows what else. Anyways There used to be this bastard of a product called Word Perfect (by bastard follow who all owned it ... Novell Corel ... etc) and then there was Microsoft Office. I'm not going to do anything catchy here, but lets face it, no one even really remember Word Perfect or Word Star or Star Office, or any of it. They use Microsoft Office ...
*Cue the rest of We Didn't Start the Fire*
Remember when if you wanted a network server, you used Unix or Novel? (Again for arguments sake we'll focus on the big boys). Remember when MS announced it was going to be bigger than Unix and Novel? Remember when everyone was sure that there was no way to ever be bigger than any of the network operating solutions? How many NT/Server 2k0/3 are out there now?
*Cue something classical ... Aerosmith perhaps*
Back to a generation some of you youngsters might remember. Remember when the three big players for video game consoles were Nintendo, Sega, and Sony? Remember who sold almost a comparable amount of X-Box's to the PS-2 (by year not in whole). Yup, Microsoft again.
What I'm getting at is this. If there's one thing Microsoft knows, it knows how to create a market for itself and give the market what it needs. When it wants to dedicate resources to taking something over, it does it, and it does it full out. The new MS search isn't really all that great right now, but lets just look at the facts ...
Google has gmail, which is pretty popular. Microsoft has hotmail, which is more popular.
Google has gtalk (or whatever the hell its called). Microsoft has
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
I hope you get modded up. I would add that Microsoft is a top-down company, a cult of Gates and gold. The troops really believe in the vision of Windows and Office everywhere, and the culture refuses to accept anything else.
Free software will kick their assets.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
Yeah. They are like Microsoft was, back when you and Bill first started the company.
Let the author pontificate, but $180 per download of a pdf file?
IBM was fully aware of minicomputers and personal computers and the threat they represented, and they did everything they could to stop them taking away market share from them. IBM was paranoid and well-informed.
In part, that's why IBM picked both a rather substandard hardware design and a rather substandard vendor to supply the operating system (IBM didn't have a choice but to go outside for their software--they were under antitrust scrutiny). This was no secret at the time--how badly the PC architecture and Microsoft's operating system sucked, and what IBM's motivations were, was obvious the day the PC was released.
And it worked as IBM intended: it took 15 years for PC software to catch up with the state of the art of the mid-80's. That translated into a lot of extra sales for IBM's mainframes, servers, and workstations. Of course, the PC business ended up being bigger and more important, but even if IBM had know that at the time, they couldn't have acted on it.
And Microsoft is about to repeat this. Microsoft would have to cannibalize their operating system and MS Office businesses in order to move ahead, and there is no way they are going to be able to do that.
I have paid yahoo money,
I have paid Microsoft money,
I have paid Netscape money,
I have paid Mozilla money,
But google doesnt have a dime of my money yet. And until I start
paying them what I was going to pay MS for the new version of Windows,
then I dont see where they are even in competition.
If they are not in competition for money, then they are in competition
for somthing else. And its probably something I dont want EITHER company
to have: Control
Check the end of TFA:
"The Google Legacy" (Infonortics, $180.00 per download) is available in online PDF version only. An online order form and a sample chapter are also available.
I think they skipped all the steps between
1. Write book
and went right to
6. Profit!!!
kM
-- You can't drink all day. (Unless you start in the morning...)
We all like to hate & bash the big guy, Microsoft, Intel, Wallmart... Will we hate Google? Is it possible for a company to be the biggest and not be hated, bashed or vilified?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
This is modded *interesting*? Google would clearly win a boatload of cash in a lawsuit, Microsoft would have the worst PR nightmare of their career on their hands, and it wouldn't work to begin with since Google can just change the DNS name of their ad servers.
No comment.
welcome our Google overlords.
Sorry, it's a tradition now. And tradition doesn't have to be funny or make sense. Cause it's OLD.
WTF?
... and Google stops indexing microsoft.com ...
M$ did something similar to WordPerfect where by WP never worked fine on DOS. Nobody sued them. This was the case with Netscape with constant crashes. Who sued M$ on these grounds?
Does Google need an OS? No!That's the real beauty and the real threat of Google. Microsoft still assumes that everything needs an OS. Google is proving time and again that the OS is nothing in the long run. Google is acting on something Microsoft considered a threat 10+ years ago--that the Internet may become an OS unto itself (not in the true sense of OS, but in the sense that its platform negates the need to run a proprietary OS like Windows).
Well, yes, they need an OS and that OS is based on the GNU/Linux kernel.
However, it's mostly a custom strip down RedHat 6.2 or 7.2 distro
and using a python/perl/mysql backend.
Does a "Google OS" exist? not really. [It's a bit of a stretch]
Does a "Google Linux Distribution" exist? Absolutely.
http://code.google.com/mirror/gsa.html
Maybe in the future, a real "Google Desktop Distro"
would be sold with computers, which would be a basic strip down desktop
with every desktop applications being on the web, on Google Application Servers.
I for one welcome our new search engine overlords
Close. I think you mean WordPerfect never worked properly on Windows. WordPerfect for DOS worked quite well. I remember the Windows version being a buggy beast though. Also wasn't there a version of Lotus 123 that wouldn't work well with a specific version of DOS? That I think was thought to be deliberate as well.
All things being equal I think it's a case of that was then, this is now. I don't think Microsoft can get away with that in todays world quite as easily as they could back in the day. Today there would definitely need to be some stealth involved because getting caught would crank up the anti-trust machine one more time. Sooner or later if they keep crossing the line someone is going to bust their ass for doing it.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
1) Web based office suite - Web based total office solution .
2) IpSCSI RAID storage and remote backup or a variant thereof .
3) GoogleNET - Dark fiber is currently being bought by them nationwide - the extent of this is not known.
4) GoogleWIFI - currently a pilot project in bay area, may roll out nationwide
5) Google IpTV - Multicast/Broadcast video streams that work thru their google video player .
If 3 of 5 of these fly it is a doomsday scenario for more than just M$ .
They could become the fastest growing ISP in the US, and could displace cable and satellite TV .
I don't know if they want to go this big out of the gate, but the google video player debut
of the matrix sequel played smooth as glass here at my house via the net .
A long shadow could be cast, and the great would tremble, and a new sun rises over google, heheh .
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Microsoft has yet to realize that software is now a commodity item. $600++ for the OS and Office is far over priced if they want to remain at the top. The price should be like a book, say $50 like they sell it in China. (less for illegal copies).
Google is already in the worlds biggest emerging market and presumably making a profit. http://www.google.cn/
Microsoft is jealous but it isn't going to change the fact that to compute you do not need Microsoft.
But imagine if Google came up with that killer app to cluster the whole worlds computer network which is best run on Linux. Or perhaps turn their CPU power into automated remote support for software updates to Linux and charge $19 per year for the service or perhaps free if Google put a single ad banner on the screen. And a user could select from the finest open source to install and run. If their system was stolen they could restore data and setting with their Google account. Now that would turn Microsoft on its end.
Google has it right, it is about servicing the customers needs for a profit and not DRM butt kissing, perpetual bug fixing, insatiable patching, often crashing and expensive. So unless Google side steps, Microsoft might as well save their dollars.
MS blocking advertising? and bite the hand that feeds?
Is the increase of dupes on /.
It just isn't going to happen. I don't understand why people think this. Sure, they do a great search engine, email, some screwy book project and a couple other things. Does anyone out there really think that "desktop search" is the next killer app? The amount of attention given this seems a bit ridiculous to me. I suppose that if you stuff all of your files in one directory it might be useful but anybody with any sense uses handy things likes "folders". I use the windows search function about twice a year.
Google doesn't create anything new. Google takes other ideas and perfects them. Granted, this is where the real money is to be made (look at MS) but can they compete with the breadth and depth of MS product offerings?? Only in their dreams. I'm not a MS fanboy by any stretch but please. Surely Google will continue to bolt on more services that will have varying degrees of usefulness and they'll be succesful but, in the end, a company like MS simply has too many resources, too much installed base and their own ideas. Remember when MS was caught completely unprepared for that newfangled "internet" thing? How long did it take them to turn around and leverage the hell out of it? Not long.
For Google to "do to MS what MS did to IBM", they are going to have to compete directly with MS on things that don't have much to do with the web and they don't stand a chance. Now, Google can still be very successful running a business that doesn't have much to do with MS and their Office/windows divisions (they will compete with and whip MSN) but that's a far cry from the beating that IBM took from MS years ago. Also don't forget that IBM handed the keys to the kingdom to MS. I don't see MS doing this for Google.
I don't know what's all the hype about google adsense?
To be frank i haven't clicked on any adsense ad in past one year! When they first introduced it i did click on some ads unknowingly thinking it's a link.
The recent success of adsense is simply because lot of new users are coming on the net every day and many of them click on adsense unknowingly, this trend will come down once the new users coming on the net peak off. New internet users click on adsense ads mostly thinking it's a link once they understand it's an ad most people don't click, unless they are really interested in the product or service advertised.
In fact i would say that banner advertisement works better at creating brand awareness than adsense text ads. If you ask me what adsense ads i have seen in past 3 days, i can't recall any, but i can recall at least 3 banner advertisements.
Well I use Google Adwords and I have to say I find Google to be masters of extortion. I used to be pro Google but after my experience using Adwords I have a completely different opinion. Anyway wasn't Netscape meant to kill Microsoft? So easy to write such an article but at the end of the days nobody knows. My money is on Microsoft though.
1) What grounds would Google have for a lawsuit? Advert-blocking is NOT illegal! No lawsuits have ever been successful against Firefox's adblock plug-in.
2) Why would blocking adverts and pop-ups be a PR nightmare for M$? It certainly isn't for Firefox.
3) If getting round adblock was as simple as switching DNS names, then why are all the advertising companies not already doing this? Filtering on content or adding a RTBL would soon fix this hole, if it even is a hole.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
It could if Google came out with a spreadsheet or word processor that works over the web in something like xml and saves files in gmail. If its made to web standards and works in any platform browser than they they'll be indirectly taking on ms's os as well since people wont have to have windows to use it.
Anti-monopolist whining and blather to the contrary notwithstanding, the secret to M$FT's dominance on the desktop is COM/DCOM cut-n-paste functionality. You can cut a few rows from an Excel spreadsheet and paste them in a Word document. You can cut a picture from a Word document and paste it in a Powerpoint presentation. You can cut a Powerpoint graphic and paste it in a Paint window. Etc etc etc...
Last I checked, neither OSX nor Linux had anything that even remotely resembled COM's flexibility or third-party vendor support. Hell, I tried using the Adobe Suite on OSX 10.2 last year [helping some idiot "scientist" put together a conference presentation], and I couldn't even cut and paste simple pictures from one Adobe application to another - I had to save to disk and use "File | Open" instead.
For that matter, do any of you even know how Acrobat works? All that Acrobat does, and I mean ALL that it does, is simple import Word documents and paginate them [or, to be more precise - spiffify their pre-existing pagination]. That's it. For all intents and purposes, Acrobat has no word-processing functionality whatsoever - all the heavy lifting and straining is done in Word [and the rest of M$Office], and afterwords, Acrobat simply imports the Word document and [re-]paginates it. [For a mere $500? What a bargain!]
Frankly, I don't see Google [or anyone else] replicating M$FT's COM/DCOM functionality anytime in the near future.
At this point, Google has enough clout that it would just display a link to firefox when it detects a browser blocking its ads. Anyone wanting to use Google (that's most everyone on the net) would have to download firefox--and goodbye IE market share...
Frankly, I don't see Google [or anyone else] replicating M$FT's COM/DCOM functionality anytime in the near future.
Actually, now that I think about it, I can see a way that Google could replicate the COM/DCOM functionality, but they would need to work in partnerships with other companies, and it would take a fair amount of effort [on the order of hundreds - or even thousands - of man-years' worth of labor].
Hmmm... maybe I should patent that approach before I open my big mouth.
it's shock media. mocrosofts deos not undrestand teh googly!!!!!!!! bye my ineternets pdf bock 2 c y!!!!!
Yeah no body uses Firefox ......
_ 4-10440402.html?tag=lst-0-2
......
http://www.download.com/Mozilla-Firefox/3000-2356
Downloads: 4,596,255
And this is not counting the MAC folks, and the other alternate browsers .
If M$ starts pulling Browser wars pt 2, u will see a major upswing in Firefox .
I already disable IE on all machines I work on that are infected due to Active X
auto-installing crap on the machines .
Some websites require IE, and I tell the ppl to how to manually type in Iexplore to
get it to start .
The IE lovers hate it, the virus/spyware/malware haters love it .
M$'s browser BS is not gonna work this time .
Death to ActiveX
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Click here to read the ending of this story.
[alk]
Remember that IBM didn't lose it's market, in fact, all the competition in its market segment (mainframes) essentially died out. Nobody cares about anti-competitive practices in that market anymore. IBM simply failed to win the *next* market segment.
:-).
If the analogy really stands up, then Microsoft will own the desktop forever, and all the rest of the competitors in that space will shrivel and die as the market becomes less relevant. The next market (network applications) will overshadow the desktop market.
It would seem to me that if one was really interested in the desktop market and wanted to see continued competition, then it's quite possible that Google winning the next war could be the worst thing that could occur. Linux could be the next Amdahl
jut like linux was going to do the same for desktops back in 98.. good luck w ith that. its like everyoen reporting tech news simpley expects ms to sit down and lay down and die. they forget that ms has way more money for r&d then ibm ever had. and ms likes to play dirty theyll make products the same and give away free as well. to kill there competition. i don't see google every being as powerful as ms ever
If google manages to become as disgustingly predatory as Microsoft was, then yes, history will probably repeat itself. However, it's possible that Google could shepherd in a new paradigm (actually, an older paradigm that has been reworked), and still maintain a decent set of ethics. I'm not certain that being a scumbag of a company is a requirement for success.
I wish I had mod points. You've brought reality back to the thread.
I tell myself , before I go to sleep.
Two words: antitrust lawsuit. Specifically, you cannot leverage a monopoly to unfairly gain an advantage in another market. If Microsoft were to do this, they would be broken up faster than you can say "Bill Gates."
especially since his book, "The Google Legacy" sells for $180.00 per download. If Google manages to dethrone MS by unseating Office (or even Windows) via a service-based approach, they open the floodgates to any new startup which could out-Google Google itself. Google is nice because it is simple and fast, but the minute someone else comes out with something having better UI (AJAX or something else) and still fast and accurate, I'm probably leaving.
Furthermore, there are definitely some privacy concerns that would cause me to stop testing Google's latest stuff...like the current linking of my Gmail account and personalized search patterns. And I still don't use my Gmail account primarily because I don't equate an honest display of ads with "Do no evil." I still don't know what they PLAN to do with the Gmail product as well as a ton of their other "free" services. Data mining, sell search info, something?
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Of course if M$ started buying publishers now they might put a crimp in things..
Here is the relevant passage from Robert A. Heinlein's book "Friday". Been waiting a while for Google to get established and with the program.
If? What the hell do you mean if? Google already does whatever they want, too bad if that tramples your rights.
Um....such as?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Google and Yahoo have almost the same number of searches, and their click revenue is pretty close as well. %40 of google's click revenue is from AOL, and if MS buys/merges AOL then say goodbye to a huge chunk of google's profits overnight.
Not to mention, unlike IBM in the 80's, MS is aggressively following google into its markets, IBM just sat around for years "Hardware not Software, thats where the money is". MS isn't doing this. MSN is trying to build the similar tools, and MSN is now a platform unit at microsoft with some really really could developers. The move of the msn unit would suggest that Microsoft sees the internet as, yep you guessed it, a platform... just like google does.
Google has tried to get into the corporate world for years, and so far every attempt has bombed. How many of you or your clients use use that "snazzy" search appliance they were selling? How many even know they were selling one?
This is a classic case of wishful thinking on behalf of the MS Haters. Google is NOT going to put MS out of business. The free wifi stuff puts them at ods with companies like earthlink, comcast, verizon, sbc, cingular even. Google is starting to step on more toes at a higher rate then MS... they have the fan fair of being a hot stock today, but make no mistake... Google has allot of others to beat before they start to topple MS.
Google develops a high speed WiMax network OS where everything is done over the network. All apps and all storage is on the network. The box that connects to this OS is a $100 machine whose internal OS is simple and is in flash rom and has lots of memory to run the apps, but no storage. The desktop and the Web are the same as far as the user is concerned. This returns us to the mainframe/terminal paradigm.
The advantage of this is that there are no viruses, spyware, worms on the user's machine. Security is pushed upstream to the the administrator of the OS. No crashes or reloads of the user's machine. Additionally, new versions of an app can be instantly available, and old versions can still be available where required for older format data. Finally, you can access all your data and apps from anywhere and use that data is presentations anywhere.
Some issues:
1. Security
2. Deployment of access to low population areas such as Montana or Chad.
3. Providing private branches for businesses who don't want their proprietary info on the public network.
4. Dealing with high security situations where the OS and data cannot be on the network: for example, nuclear power control, manufacturing control especially pharmaceutical and chemical
4. Converting ISVs to service and use oriented income rather than selling copies of a program. Users would pay to gain access to a program (maybe a one-time or per-use fee). No more worrying about where that cryptic serial number was stored when system reload is done. The system knows if you have paid to use a program.
So, here we have a company that provides internet advertising and it is valued higher than Boeing, 2/3 of IBM, over 2x Airbus. Yahoo is atually making more revenue with the same growth potential.
Everyone believing that Google can keep up this growth or even its current value is just following a pipe dream; there is a reason why Google floated $4bn of extra shares this time, as they have to assume that the hype is going to die down.
Youre right. According to /. MS patents are always bad while Google patents bring good future.
Patents are not always bad. Indeed, patents make the economy / technology step forward. Letting companies [inventors] get a patent on their invention is like a guarantee that noone else will steal their idea. Knowing that I will be able to patent my invention, I have the guarantee that noone else will copy that product so I much likely invest a larger amount of money [work] to make it better.
Not being able to patent my work lets me think that I work 5 years to invent something and when its ready other companies just take the whole idea and use it.
Software patents are a little more delicate and this is what the EU government understands. Due to the lack of software patents many European software engineers move to the US: they can patent their work and get more money. I believe that you should be able to patent a cool algorithm (like Googles PageRank or whatever it is called) but you should not be allowed to patent Hello world. The fact that MS could patent so many and so common, widely used ideas is just a weakness of the US patent policy.
The future will be about the user interface to all of the benefits of tech and about the freedom of information and control that the user interface allows. User interfaces must be useful, intuitive, personal, adaptive and free (of control by patents, etc). All other issues are temporary and relatively insignificant. Articles like this one are basically useless, unfortunately.
If I had a dollar for every time in the last 25 years that I've heard someone claim either Microsoft was dead or IBM was dead, I'd have enough money to buy both companies. Neither one of them is dead, and neither one of them is even gasping. As I said a couple of weeks ago the last time a story like this appeared on Slashdot, the only company that has reinvented itself more often than Microsoft is IBM. And they will both adapt to a world with Google in it. They aren't going to kill Google, and Google isn't going to kill them. Move along, there's nothing to see here.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
It's not so much that Microsoft is losing share to OSS and Linux, but that Windows and Office aren't able to expand into the huge markets of the developing world while Linux and OSS are able to. The PC revolution outside the Western market is ~not~ going to include Microsoft or Apple, and they know this.
And what really scares Microsoft on that front I'm sure is when millions of students in Brazil, Peru, Indonesia, China, India, etc. grow up using Linux, many of them will grow up into Linux and OSS developers. That's millions of more eyeballs on open source code. That's millions of new minds with several of them sure to be harboring some groundbreaking ideas.
random underscore blankspace at ya know hoo dot comedy.
True, but that didn't help Netscape, did it? Microsoft are notorious scofflaws when it comes to illegal monopoly abuse, and unless they've suddenly developed a conscience I doubt they would have any qualms about reoffending.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
As much as MS is decried for being arrogant, Google now seems to be doing the same thing. Statements like "we'll topple Microsoft because they don't understand us" and the implication that, "we're the new Microsoft, the dominant player" point to a culture of corporate hubris. That is a dangerous thing, although I suppose it is inevitable when their stock price is as inflated as it is.
Being a benevolent industry kingpin isn't easy especially if you are public company.
How long will it be before Google's unofficial motto is unofficially dropped, or worse, seen as officially hypocritical?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Well, if MS put in the advert-blocking specifically to kill Google, it would be an antitrust violation.
And again, if it was done to kill Google, it would be a PR nightmare.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
We've been hearing about the approaching power of the web app since Java and Netscape first cozied up to each other.
It hasn't happened.
Let's be blunt, web apps are slow loading and clunky compared to the average locally installed application, and it's likely to remain that way. Even broadband won't resolve the issue. Actual bandwidth will have to get to 100 MegaBit before most users will consider a web app fast enough to use.
And even then we hit the old "Switch to OpenOffice" hurdle. Specifically, most users are not going to switch unless there's a good reason to do so. Unless the web apps are clearly better than whatever Microsoft is offering, they'll languish.
And the we need to face facts. Linux is on the server, and we need to compete in that market. I like my Linux desktop, and will be thrilled if iTunes is ever ported to Linux. Aside from that, even if Linux is ready for the desktop, inertia will keep it out of the market in any meaningful way.
Most users still see their computers like a stereo, not like a car requiring maintenance, and installing alternate operating systems is a niche activity, no matter how common it seems in this forum.
Microsoft must LOVE all the time and energy we're wasting on the Desktop, because they know Linux is not a serious threat there. Where are all the Linux companies making their money? SERVER installs.
The server market is where MS fears Linux, and where it has some advantages. Wasting time on the desktop when Linux needs to go after the enterprise, fortune 100 server is playing right into Microsoft's hands.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
He's not an idiot. He and his company ARE anti-social bullies. He's the product of what we now know to be the fertile breeding grounds for sociopaths... The corporation... Maybe just the american corporation, I dunno. Europe seem to have far fewer Enron/Worldcom type incidents.
Keep in mind MSFT IS the company that caused the IRS to tighten up the definition of what a contractor is.
Someone needs to hook up Balmer with Bobby Knight.
It seems to me everyone wants to compete for the monopoly rather than for the purposes of technology.
I thought so. Google has not exactly gone out of their way to put their applications on Linux as opposed to Windows. Microsoft therefore ultimately leads Google by the nose. As they would be led by the nose by Linus if they focused all app development on Linux. As they would be led by the nose by Jobs if they focused all development on OSX.
Google is not an operating system and never will be. They will forever be at the mercy of the operating systems they publish on and the web browsers through which their services are accessed. If they concentrated on text interfaces, they'd be at the mercy of Lynx and its maintainers.
Google claiming they will beat Microsoft or anyone else is just plain ludicrous. It's like an aftermarket auto parts maker stating they will put the auto manufacturer out of business.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
1 MS somehow has the copy of Google's strategy. Their is heavy corporate spying between the two. MS Managers are interviewing at Google just to sniff what's going on ? For example, a Manager working for Jeff Rikes interviewed for Google. It is speculated that Google will launch a product similar to MS Business Solutions but the product will be web based.....
2 We need an Office online and do you think Bill is sleeping ? LOL, take a dip in your bath tub. I speculate they must have already started their internal testing on the product. Don't you trust managedcode ?
3 Server-Equals-Service. Its really embaressing the way Ballmer talks. He should first learn to respect Geeks/Developers. Bill has this vision since 2000(web-services). Ultimately it is making money out of it. Gooogle is intimidating MS, trust me now MSN is under direct supervision of Bill and you will see search improve drastically. Bill was focused on Windows for the last 5 years to mature it as a world class product and it sure is now. Do I sound like his technical assistant, oho fuck!
5 The FAT Layer... As company matures their are people who worked hard once upon a time. They now buy Box tickets to Mariners game and work at Microsoft to socialiaze. Some ambitious men like Lee were frustrated because of this. IBM has the fattest layer who negotiate with governments and they have their own way of milking. Slowly MS is going that way but it would hard to see Bill sitting down and doing nothing.
6 Product Vs Product(Major Products) Windows/Office - Keep Dreaming about Linux with 1% Market share. (Office story is threatening, but new features are being offered and I speculate that Office will be an Integrated communication system or some value added product to maintain the bottomline).
SQL-Server - Oracle-Fuck yourself. Google, if you can beat this, I will put a SELL recommendation on MSFT. I have seen the performance of Yukon, it rocks. It will fuck Oracle & DB2 on 64 bit.
Xbox - So nicely timed. The entertainment division will be in Black this year.
Web-Services - GOOG leads.......
7 Morale amongst employees, Very High for GOOG plus the attitude. MS 25% supercharged, another 25% work because they like to develop and another 25% work to earn and another 25% don't care.
8 Compensation MS bumped it up for all its GMs and VPs. Yes the Box ticket holders so I don't see much difference but will make atleast 25% difference but what else Bill can do now ? Google has the best pay and job satisfaction amongst its employees now. And a sky rocketing stock producing googlainers.
MS has too much shit internally to deal with and sure Google will see some setbacks too. The clear winner will be the consumer because of innovation and I am glad corporate America is once again innovating leaving China and India behind.
...but through a different registrar, as if they might have something to hide.
The future will belong to whatever company understands digital content better, and that's certainly not Microsoft with their overzealous approach to DRM (needing a DRM compliant monitor? That's going too far). Google has a far better understanding of digital content, but whether they truly understand it will be borne out by the result of the Google Print debacle.
IBM fell to Microsoft because it failed to adapt to the underlying market forces, not because it didn't understand Microsoft. Microsoft will fall for the same reason. It's too big and too entrenched in its current business model to recover in time (just like IBM in the 80's). Google is far more nimble and is looking further ahead than next quarter's growth (which, by the way, is freaking Microsoft out because they've failed to grow quarter after quarter for the first time in their history). Even the newest tactic by Microsoft, splitting into three internally managed components, isn't going to save them. IBM did the same thing.
History doesn't repeat itself, but management techniques, personalities, and market forces cause historical situations to re-occur, and the same choices are made time after time by people in similar contexts.
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
Thou art a subject of the Google, created in the image of Google, by the Google, for the Google.
The one thing I never had to question Microsoft was the privacy aspects of their business. Google, on the other hand, basically standardized the permanent cookie. Every time a search is done, they log the search, cookie id, IP, and timestamp. This provides authorities with far more than you can imagine, and Google has never answered the question of subpeonas.
Nah, we have the friendly companies of Phillips and Siemens and the like :P
:)
Different culture, different symptoms, different names, but bottomline the same problemn
Since you mention it, not long after a story about Pursuit Dynamics (it's traded on one of the UK exchanges) was published here on SlashDot a couple of years ago, I did some research about the company on my own and purchased 5,000 shares for $3,308. Those 5,000 shares are now worth about $22,750. :-) Who says reading SlashDot is a waste of time?
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
I think your talking out of your shit and don't even realise it.
You do know that you can run Office on Linux with only a few problems don't you? and people pay for it. What kind of perspective does that put on you comment that though highley modded comment?
Don't believe me! What's this then, a lie?
Yep, except that they still lose money on everything but Windows, Office, and MSN. See Note 18 of their most recent SEC filing:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000
It was not Microsoft who dethroned IBM. It was the minis then distributed computing that did so.
IBM was the king of the mainframe: highly reliable and expensive centralized computing that is accessed from terminals.
The trouble for IBM started with the minis with proprietary operating systems, such as DEC VMS and the like. Then it was the UNIX minis made by several vendors like Sun, Pyramid, HP.
Much later it was client server computing that finally toppled IBM from the position of dominance they had. There was Novell Netware and Banyan VINES there as well, way before Windows networking was something to go by.
They changed from the arrogant top player to a much humbled, yet respected company. This was in the early to mid 1990s as I recall.
Microsoft's role in all this is not that great, apart from providing the operating system for PCs in the client server world.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
it does not reduce your freedom (if you don't want to "lease" music, you can go without it, or play your own).
No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. I have the inborn right (not granted by my creator, there is no creator, this right just exists) to have all content ever produced, in any format I choose, for whatever price I deem worth paying, to do with as I wish. Anything less is an unconscionable breach, completely immoral, and worthy of disdain.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
I'll bet that if you dig into the secret documents of Apple, Oracle, Sun, the oodles of Linux companies, IBM, Sony, and dozens of other companies, you'll find plans to dethrone Microsoft. And how much of that has occurred?
Google may have a lot of momentum, but they are just another name in the long list of companies trying to kill MS. The only difference is that MS is taking this one more seriously and is prepared to fight the good fight.
Ironically, I think all this Google vs. Microsoft will result in a new status quo where both companies coexist semi-peacefully. Like IBM and Sony.
In Soviet Russia we were bashing google in 0202
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
I am really enjoying the posts in this thread. Some are quite good beyond the usual slashdot banter to Google or MSFT... or against MSFT. One thing to point out is that Google Desktop Search was really a slap in the face of Microsoft. It basically said, hey we got game buddy. Second, it says that the web interface to the computer is fine by me. Hyper-explore your computer though the web interface. GDS2.0 is more or less the same and by all means a little crappier... who needs that damn huge sidebar... I mean, that reminds me of the Sidekick days. One thing about apps we learnt from the OSX world is that we want to be able HIDE them away, off the screen... on multiple screens and that they must be perty!!! Perty opengl polished eye candy. GDS2.0 should try to be Mac OSX widgets. I didn't realize how useful widgets were till I poured coffee over my powerbook and am stuck with a Windows box for a while.
...Google searches you.
I for one welcome our new overlords
Remember, guys, there are countries where MS services aren't very extensively used.
Take Poland for example (I'm from Poland). MS operating system and office suite are as popular as anywhere in the world, agreed. But MSN? Not used, hardly recognized. Hotmail? Nah, not known, and if known, considered 'this all-time-spammed thingy'. Messenger? People just get annoyed with this icon in their systrays, literally *nobody* uses this app. And I mean the masses, these totally non-techie Sixpacks.
I believe Poland is not that very different from other countries at ~similar stage of development.
OTOH, everyody uses Google. Everybody uses Gmail (or wants to), perhaps due to that 'elite' feeling (invitations?). Google Maps/Earth are very, umm, hype.
Other thing is, nobody here considers Google a corporation, really. People are just not aware (imagine!) Google's here to make money.
Weird, isn't it?
In a world of "scumbag" companies it's only a matter of time before the "decent" company is dragged into the courts. IMHO there is no way to win in the high dollar court but to out scumbag the other contestants. At that point it's only a matter of time before it becomes second nature to scumbag the consumer. It's a skill (black magic?) that once learned is to tempting not to use.
I want this account deleted.
Lol, google has yet to produce something I cannot live without. Therefore, exactly how are they going to replace anything?
At the end of the day, I don't want another monthly surcharge that limits me to what google thinks I want. I DO NOT WANT TO BE MARKETED TO at every touch point. I do not want my every action tracked so that google can sell advertising. I do not want to store my data online on someone elses servers, especially someone who tracks everything I do so they can market to me.
At the end of the day, as long as Google is a direct marketing company, they are not going to replace anything on my computer.
Duke Nukem Forever Released!
No sig for you!!
Slashdot is catching up with fark.com ... seriously, how many story submissions were directly inspired by a fark headline? Do some submitters think the net cred they earn for the submission isn't counterbalanced by their being complete tools?
I saw this on fark *days* ago. It isn't news, it's barely for nerds, and it doesn't matter.
Self-referential sigs are rarely entertaining.
By far, the best one was what they did with OS/2 (while MS was still heavily invested in Win3.11). OS/2 was my main o/s for day to day stuff, but there were some things I had to test in dos. I reinstalled dos to it's 1GB partition (no big thing - one diskette) and the installation procedure said "You have OS/2 installed. There may not be enough space to complete the installation. Would you like me to deinstall OS/2?" Huh...1 diskette is going to eat up 1GB of disk?
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:32(King James Version)
Sounds like Microsoft.
Yup. They invented the GUI. And word processors. And software development tools.
Nothing wrong with using other people's ideas. They have implemented them better than their competition...
That's right. Microsoft is immortal in the business world. It has to allow other people to beat it in order to be beaten. So don't you even THINK about beating them with your dot com startup wiz-bang über gadget, not unless you've worked your way up to Grand-Master in Ballmer and Gate's secret club of developers developers developers developers.
Because, you know, when I want a server I choose Win2k3... er... I do, right?
No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. I have the inborn right (not granted by my creator, there is no creator, this right just exists) to have all content ever produced, in any format I choose, for whatever price I deem worth paying, to do with as I wish. Anything less is an unconscionable breach, completely immoral, and worthy of disdain.
/.ers, but the concept of "intellectual property" has done a lot of harm for whatever good it has brought.
No, Wait! I think it's more that you have the right to piss on the constitution, trash the laws, sue children for huge, made up "estimated losses", force people to buy good HW with broken SW, lock them out of the devices they bought from you under false pretenses, retroactively change contracts after people purchase things, retroactively change copyright expirations, Send people who copy a movie to Federal rape jail for 5 years with a felony so they can never be a real citizen or get a decent job again, then fine them $10K, force people to pay $16 for 2 good songs and a 10 more that are crap, Patent clicking on a button and a thousand other obvious things that get approved because the state views patents as a profit center, call skipping commercials "stealing", etc., etc., etc.
You have the right to do all this, because if you didn't, you might be forced to work a day's work to make a day's pay. A musician would have to play each day for their supper (sorry, Britney), a programmer would have to code each day for his supper (sorry, Sergei), and there would be no supper at all for all those lawyers, entertainment executives, and other people who make so much money for doing nothing useful at all.
I make my living off my brains, not my back, just like most
Lots of folks in this thread are pointing out that Google and Microsoft have completely different business models and aren't necessarily competing, so why should MS be interested/worried about Google? Others are saying the 'search engine war' will never end. Well, remember what happened to Netscape? Remember the browser wars? In what way did Netscape compete with MS?
Let me sum your opinion up: Someone else did something wrong, so I can do something else wrong because that's just fine!
You make your living off your brains? You aren't starving? Miracles never cease.
Just because a dirty hippie that lives on grant money said people should be commies, you nerds line up like sheep in the chute. Follow your judas goat. I only smile, knowing you're a severe minority.
Could you define what you mean by "good search engine"?
To me its one that helps me find what I'm looking for quickly. For me, (right now anyway) google fits the bill. Of course, others have had good searches and destroed them with paid placements.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
Another reason that Apple won't dominate business is they are practicably impossible to use without a mouse (out of the box anyway).
Most businesses are in constant fear of lawsuits over section 508. Windows, KDE, and Gnome are windowing environments that take into account that a user may need alternative forms of input and control. Hell, if Apple made their environment more usable, I might even use it (except for the menu bar thing at the top, that drives me bonkers).
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
This isn't true. MS might be guilty of many things, but they've always been very serious about maintaining application compatibility across OS versions.
When you have a monopoly, the most important activity is to, above all, maintain that monopoly. If you can, then there will always be time later to regain what you lost during any price cuts. The OpenOffice.org suite and, especially, the OpenDocument format have them in fear - MS' current business model is dependent on income from MS Office and without it, MS itself is likely not profitable in its current structure.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I agree, I think Google will maintain offering their services for free for the average user, but start offering business solutions. A managed web portal for your organization. Google office, Google bookkeeping,, a payroll service, all through a web portal you can use anywhere. Larger organizations may buy Google hardware. Dummy boxes that run a web browser, asking a locally Google-powered server. No more spy ware, and the ability to keep tabs on employees (for the employer, not necessarily for Google.). No IT staff, many of us geeks could be out of the job. It makes sense that the next move is to buy Novell, get SuSE and the IBM partnership. Google is the big winner here offering the service, instead of the software. Just like ho w IBM lost out to Microsoft, cause Microsoft sold software instead of hardware. Poetic justice, no??
Please keep in mind, I'm speculating, I really don't know, but it makes sense.
We have all come to distrust companies, but if they are going to do what I think they will, then they can make oodles of money making devices that work side by side with windows boxes (end user) as well as kicking some Micor$oft @$$ in the server rooms. They can go a while before they have to cross morals to make money, or piss us off by getting greedy. Microsoft became the evil empire because the market is flooded with their product, and they started to hurt the people who made the world possible, often the people who knew the product well enough to install it, pirate it, and repair it when it goes blue screening.
"10001110101 - periodic table with a centerpiece of mind" -Clutch
When has Google trampled your rights?
"10001110101 - periodic table with a centerpiece of mind" -Clutch