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Battle of the Tech Titans

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the in-this-corner dept.

garzpacho writes "BusinessWeek has a look at the big tech alliances that have been announced recently. From the article: 'In the war for dominance of the Net, May 25 turned out to be a big day for alliance making... The pairings highlight the importance the fast-growing, $12.5 billion Internet ad market and the race to get in front of as many Web surfers as possible. The alliance with eBay gives Yahoo a way to narrow a lead by Google in generating advertising sales. Paring with Dell, meantime, helps Google muscle in on Microsoft's dominance of the desktop. These alliances are predicated as a response to a looming threat...'"

19 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Dell+Google = Overblown by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "Paring with Dell, meantime, helps Google muscle in on Microsoft's dominance of the desktop."

    Um, it's a search toolbar, not an OS. I'm sure M$ still happily cashes Dell's checks for each copy of the OS that ships with nearly every model...

    1. Re:Dell+Google = Overblown by Ucklak · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's bundled applications too.

      Google Earth vs. Windows Live
      Picasa vs. whatever crap Vista will have with it
      gmail vs. MSN/Hotmail/Passport

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    2. Re:Dell+Google = Overblown by dave562 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Um, it's a search toolbar, not an OS. I'm sure M$ still happily cashes Dell's checks for each copy of the OS that ships with nearly every model...

      The larger issue in this case is the 12.5 billion dollar online advertising market. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are trying to generate revenue by serving up advertising. Because Google is integrating their toolbar and desktop search on Dell PCs, Microsoft is losing potential revenue that would have been generated by Dell shipping PCs with their browsers automatically feeding people into MSN.

      On the subject of advertising, Microsoft is obviously flailing. They are trying to do too many things at once. That is good news for people who are taking aim at their core OS / application business, but bad news for people using Microsoft software.

    3. Re:Dell+Google = Overblown by d_beep · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In the near future, OS will become meaningless. Ordinary Joe is not interested in running windows/linux.
      He needs to do the work quickly and efficiently.
      (Ever noticed the blank look on your (non geek) friend face when you passionately debate linux vs windows. ).

      Big companies are in a rush to provide services on the web. "Pay as you utilise" model seems to work.
      Whoever will serve the user faster and
      easier will get his/her dollars. Plus the added advantage of advertising revenue.

      I think that Dell + Google is a very stretegic move in enabling windows (XP, Vista) users to utilise google services. In addition, it may be a bit of "do now or die" thing also.
      M$ has the advantage of desktop real estate. If vista locks the user down with native msn searching capabilities, + windows live services + who knows what else, what will google do. Also, do you even like the google toolbar. It is "uglicious". I much prefer the ease of firefox google search box.
      Other than searching, what other services do google offer which are generating revenue. take the searching advantage from google and see how fragile it looks.

      Web based services will rule the next decade, and unfortunately it seems that m$ may take a big chunk of revenue.

      my exact 2 cents worth (canadian!!!! no less).

  2. So it's... by eviloverlordx · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...YaBay vs. Doogle vs. Microsoft. Normally, three-ways excite me, but not this time...

    --
    'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
  3. Google Competing with Microsoft? by oostevo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Where did writers of buisness publications get it into their heads that Google is trying to directly compete with Microsoft?

    "The Dell deal, on the other hand, gives Google prime real estate on desktops -- a space dominated by Microsoft (MSFT) ... [Microsoft] drew the ire of Google ... Google now is taking matters into its own hands"

    I very well could just be missing something, but I just don't see them competing in a direct, substantive way, at least just yet. I mean, Google makes most of its profits by online advertising, and Microsoft makes most of its profits through licensing of software.

    There's obviously some overlap in that some of their products overlap, but what's with all this war drum talk?

    --
    In soviet russia, You ask not what country do for you, but what you do for country!
    Oh wait...
    1. Re:Google Competing with Microsoft? by technomancerX · · Score: 4, Informative

      Considering MS has pretty much said they intend to kill Google as the dominant search engine, the competition is pretty obvious. Though to be more specific it's really more like MSN vs Google competing for web supremacy.

      --
      .technomancer
    2. Re:Google Competing with Microsoft? by kfg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Where did writers of buisness publications get it into their heads that Google is trying to directly compete with Microsoft?

      No doubt from the very public dick size contest they've got going on between them.

      Where they get the idea that the subject is of any interest to anyone else is beyond me. Maybe business publications have gotten into a dick size contest with the National Inquirer or something.

      KFG

    3. Re:Google Competing with Microsoft? by ClassMyAss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Considering MS has pretty much said they intend to kill Google as the dominant search engine, the competition is pretty obvious. Though to be more specific it's really more like MSN vs Google competing for web supremacy.

      Ever since I saw question #5 on the Google Labs Aptitude Test, "What's wrong with Unix? How would you fix it?", I've always wondered if Google was working on an OS of their own on the sly. If I was Microsoft, I'd be extremely worried about this prospect, since pretty much every Google offering has randomly appeared on the Google Labs site, for the most part with very little fanfare.

      Not to say that it is or is not likely (that's a question I'm in no position to answer), but imagine what it would do to MS if a free Google-flavored Linux distro popped up without warning two weeks before Vista shipped? If there's one company out there that could/would concievably try to make such a thing and get it idiot-proof enough to let the average non-tech person use it effectively (this isn't a bait, but none of the current distributions are there, yet), it's Google. And I think the company has enough goodwill stored up (not to mention the media darling status it has attained) that people would actually pay attention to it and give it a try, even if it was bundled with Google Pack or some other way for Google to monetize. Needless to say, this would all but cement Linux as the operating system of choice for the concievable future, since there would finally be an incentive for everyone to create Linux versions of their programs instead of (or along with) Mac and Windows ones if a reasonable percentage of people were using it.

      So if I was Bill Gates, I'd be wetting myself over the Google problem. It's not that Google has indicated any desire to destroy Microsoft, it's that they would stand a fighting chance if they decided to give it a go. No company has ever had that power before, so it's quite rational that MS wants to squash them before the tables turn.

  4. The Empire by Xentor · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it just me, or did the ending of the blurb remind anyone else of the text at the beginning of Star Wars?

    I started humming the empire music...

    --
    "The amount of intelligence on this planet is a constant. The population is growing." -Cole's Axiom
  5. Welcome tiered PCs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    This just in... Google loads itself on PCs.. and starts charging ISPs for the right to have customers with Dells connect to it.

  6. Internet Ad Market - don't we all block ads? by us7892 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How will these alliances really effect my browsing experience? Seems like these efforts will just be met with more efforts to block their ads.

    Except for the simple microAds from Google, and which now appear all over the place, everything else I, or my company, block. Popups are blocked, ad sites are blocked. Sites that get too annoying with javascript ads, or use annoying pass-through ad pages too often, I stop visiting.

    How much more $$$ can there actually be for advertisers on the web? Isn't everyone doing all they can to block these annoyances? Seems like the alliances will be irrelevant.

    1. Re:Internet Ad Market - don't we all block ads? by Evro · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The people who block ads account for maybe 5% of total web users. The market is enormous. Even if 90% of Slashdot readers actively block ads it's a drop in the bucket compared to the worldwide population of web users.

      --
      rooooar
    2. Re:Internet Ad Market - don't we all block ads? by goodminton · · Score: 4, Informative
      The site I run caters to businesses and I don't see lots of javascript being blocked. I'm not sure if that directly correlates to the blockage of ads but it seems to me they should be pretty closely related.

      Javascript Stats: 98.66% Enabled - 1.34% Disabled

      Operating System Stats: 71.83% Windows XP - 19.03% Windows 2000 - 6.64% Windows 98 - 1.10% Windows NT4.0 - 0.75% Windows ME - 0.43 PPC - 0.13% Windows 2003 - 0.05% Mac OS X - 0.03% FreeBSD

      Browser Stats: 90.08% MSIE 6.0 - 4.06% Firefox 1.5.0 - 2.10% MSIE 5.0 - 1.75% Firefox 1.0.7 - 0.89% MSIE 5.5 - 0.38% MSIE 5.01 - 0.38% MSIE 5.23 - 0.16% Firefox 1.0.1 - 0.08% Opera 8.51 - 0.05% Safari 1.2 - 0.03% Netscape 7.1 - 0.03% Firefox 1.0 - 0.03% Mozilla 5.0

  7. Sooo.... by blackbeaktux · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google: Will you marry me?
    Dell: But it's so sudden.... I love your earnings and advertising potential, but how do I know it not just my desktop you're after?
    Google: I understand your fears, baby, but here's a wad of cash to smooth things over. And a prenup drafted just so our breakup won't be so bloody.
    Dell: Wait, you're not interested in making and nurturing a family with me? And you're already thinking of our divorce?
    Google: Weren't you?
    Dell: Actually, I was. Sorry. Aww, you came ready with the prenup, how nice of you. Let me run it by legal first.
    Google: Sure baby. [mutters] You're goin' down, Bill Microsoft.
    Dell: [mutters] Our kids would've been hideous. Might as well take the money and run.

    I was watching soap yesterday, involuntarily. Spare me.

  8. trivial nitpick by bunions · · Score: 3, Interesting
    from the just-because-the-spellchecker-doesn't-complain-doe sn't-mean-it's-right dept.

    Pairing with Dell. Paring with Dell makes it sound like they're making pies.

    Mmmmm. Googledell pie.

    --
    there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
  9. Dinosaurs mating? by zenhkim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Am I the only one who's reminded of the gradual decline of the Big Mainframe Companies way back when (aka IBM and The Seven Dwarves)? To stave off eventual extinction, they kept merging with each other (read: business alliances) as their respective sales/earnings fell, again and again ad nauseum....

    But hey, the world is a big spinning carousel -- and here we are again.

    --
    "All hands, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
  10. Re: Sad really by 0110011001110101 · · Score: 2, Funny
    business model??? who cares?? Your parent post was following the /. joke model for karma whoring success. Yours however, was sadly lacking the ??? step, making it less mod-friendly.

    I salute your attempt, but here people just want to laugh at the same tired jokes over and over again so please, please, stop posting and trying to raise the bar.

    --
    Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
  11. Not Overblown - Google Needs This by raftpeople · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If Google did not make this deal, then they would probably be SOL as MS can make their search the default and over time Google would become as relevant as Netscape.

    I probably wouldn't word this as Google "muscling in" but rather as taking a critical step in defending against MS "muscling in."