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Microsoft Testing Its Own 'Google Base'
sheasie! writes "eWeek is reporting that Microsoft is readying an online marketplace, code-named Fremont, which is apparently in response to a similar feature that rival Google Inc. introduced a few weeks ago." From the article: "The software giant will enhance the Fremont listings with localized maps, and make them available through Microsoft's newly revamped Internet portal, now known as Live.com, according to the company."
Unless I can type www.google.com to get there is has no hope ;)
Microsoft seems to be blindly copying whatever is coming out of Google these days.
This is good, because this creates a competition between two companies which are both strong...no chance of Microsoft swallowing up a smaller company and becoming a monopoly in this case...
I hope this brings out the best value for the consumers.
That bunch of criminals who once held the defacto monopoly on desktop OS's and office productivity? I thought people got wise to those losers in the first decade of the 21st century?
Oh damn, I just blew my cover again. The temporal overlords are probably going to send me to the 23rd century this time. Bastards!
Fremont is a district of Seattle here. It is more so known for its eclectic people than marketplace so I find it an interesting choice for a name. Check out the myths section @ http://www.fremont.com/
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all your base are belong to MS :/
ERROR 3260: Couldn't update; currently locked by user GOOGLE on machine INTERNET."
liqbase
Actually this is not so similar to Google Base, but a more direct (and small-thinking) rip off of Craigslist, as far as I can see. There is the similarity that Microsoft also have a search engine to directly map over this data, but eWeek are going much too far (also in http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1877217,00.as p, linked) in ignoring the fundamental differences between a community listing site, an auction site (where the role of the provider is much more hands-on) and the need for Google to get their engine to work with sites dynamically generated from a back-end database...
It used to be that companies had to jump everytime Microsoft announced an initiative, dumping cash into project that at best would have them keeping up with Microsoft. Interesting that Microsoft is being forced to do the same now when Google moves - probably only because they're one of the few innovative compeitors that Microsoft can't just buy.
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Today a leaked Microsoft memo confirms that aiming to become a market leader in the google field, is now the IT giants number one priority. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was quoted as saying "When someone wants to know something, and someone else says, just google the internet for it, we want the first address they think of to be search.msn.com". Analysts predict that this heavy investment in the field of web googling will pay big dividends for the company. Furthermore should the company achieve its targets, Microsoft's history of dominating other industries might mean that in the future, when you are confronted with facts that don't seem quite right, blind ignorance, or a compulsive drive to outperform your rivals in meaningless fact gathering activities, your first instinct will be to "just Microsoft it".
Microsoft claimed that protecting intellectual property encouraged innovation, in other words they don't want people copying them because they feel copying is detrimental to being innovative. If this is the case, why is it they have suddenly come up with an equivalent of the open document standard, added tabs to their new Internet Explorer, copied Google's search features to the letter, and now copying Google's other offerings (satellite maps, online books and directories). I'm not really against them improving their services, merely that in doing so it goes against what they seem to campaign for. Microsoft now just seems to be a huge company, with huge resources and huge finances and clone anything that makes money. Where's their leadership in innovation now?
With Microsoft copying Google's every single move, it makes me wish that Google would go out of business and join a monastary. Balmer's already got the haircut and everything...
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Let's call it "Freebase"
It's not just google, it's any successful market that relies on technology.
It's called 'playing catch-up'.
Microsoft's business model is failing, and rather than wasting precious time figuring out what new things it can do, it needs to quickly copy other successful businesses, and preferably kill them off (as usual) by leveraging its monopoly.
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I struggling to think of a single time that companies had to "jump" to keep up with Microsoft due to a new MS iniative...
The internet... nope last there
Enterprise Software... nope last there
Spreadsheets, Wordprocessors... nope last there
Multi-tasking operating system... nope last there
Games Console... nope last there
Mobile Phone OS... nope last there
Desktop Search... nope last there
etc etc etc
Microsoft has NEVER dictated the direction of the market, its just leveraged a monopoly position to successfully copy other people's strategies and dominate in that segment.
The only place where MS are seen to lead is in marketing, where they announce the week after another company has done something that Microsoft will be doing that "any day now"... 2 years later you may still be waiting.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
R&D here stands for "Rape and Destroy"?
Google didn't become famous because of some multi-million dollar marketing campaign. Nor did they aim to destroy other search engines. It's assumed that the public came up with the term Googling, and yet despite their quietness, their quality of service spoke volumes. So loud was this boom that it rippled through the entire online community so that everyone has heard of them in a very short period of time. They didn't bribe other companies to work with them, they gave millions to worthy causes, and have a committment to running an ethical business, where shareholders take a back seat. Microsoft have had a search engine for ages, covered with advertisements and cluttered menus. They stripped this down after Google came along, threw hundreds of millions of dollars all over the world to get people to use their site, and co-incidently ended up using the same on-page advertising style as Google. Their search engine was slower, had less results, and the results you did get were less relevent. Their aim wasn't to provide a high quality and innovative service which would constantly evolve, it was to take the market from Google and put the profits in their shareholder's pockets. They would only innovate if they were forced to as part of a project to increase revenue, some of which would only go to a worthy cause if they could get enough publicity from it (i.e. it's just another PR exercise). So, to summarise, Google tinker away challenging themselves and keep relatively quiet about it. Microsoft beaver away throwing armies of developers and marketing campaigns at their service while quietly ripping off anything they can find. Microsoft don't challenge themselves, they become challenged by others. They have no will to improve themselves without threat from others taking over a lucrative market. What I've said isn't exactly insightful, it's just commentating on what appears to be happening.