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Microsoft COO Warns Google Away From Corp Search

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-off-my-lawn dept.

Forbes is reporting on comments made by Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, concerning the corporate search business. At a company conference in Boston, Turner referred to the enterprise search business as 'our house', and warned Google to stay out. From the article: "Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off our plate, because that is what they are intending to do ... Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business"

70 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Wow, NEWS! by mboverload · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, a company doesn't want another company taking its business.

    Jesus Zonk, why did you approve this story?

    1. Re:Wow, NEWS! by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's newsworthy about this is not the competition between Microsoft and Google, but what Turner's comments reveal about Microsoft's attitude. The arrogance and lack of understanding of the competition that those few sentences encapsulate are breathtaking.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    2. Re:Wow, NEWS! by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I agree about Microsoft's arrogance in general, in this case it's just locker room talk:

      "We be bad. Yeah!"

      Pumpin' up the team. You'll hear its like at every stupid sales meeting at every stupid company in the world. Some of 'em even sing stupid fight songs. It's non news about a non event.

      KFG

    3. Re:Wow, NEWS! by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, it would be a non-story if they were talking about Office Suites. But since Microsoft is dumping billions of dollars into web services to "kill Google", it's somewhat ironic.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    4. Re:Wow, NEWS! by StarvingSE · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The comment wasn't out of line, but it provides insight into the microsoft mentality. Instead of stating that they have a superior product, with valid points as to why it is superior, they just tell google to get out of their way. The fact is that microsoft is egotistical and doesn't like competition what-so-ever, and this statement proves it.

      --
      I got nothin'
    5. Re:Wow, NEWS! by lantastik · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's funny how people like to sit behind their computers and criticize the business tactics of the most powerful corporation on the planet. I am not implying that I agree with their methods, but to assume a "lack of understanding" from a company that generates more than $40 billion (billion with a "b") in annual sales, and whose executives are among the richest men and women in the world...that shows a lack of understanding. Arrogant...sure, ignorant, FAR from it. You can afford some arrogance when you can buy and sell half the world's countries with your annual sales.

    6. Re:Wow, NEWS! by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's funny how people like to sit behind their computers and criticize the business tactics of the most powerful corporation on the planet. I am not implying that I agree with their methods, but to assume a "lack of understanding" from a company that generates more than $40 billion (billion with a "b") in annual sales, and whose executives are among the richest men and women in the world...that shows a lack of understanding. Arrogant...sure, ignorant, FAR from it. You can afford some arrogance when you can buy and sell half the world's countries with your annual sales.

      Oh, really?

      If anything, Microsoft's arrogance will contribute to their downfall. You can't flout a Government forever; they come for you, eventually. With pitchforks.

      Not to mention that Microsoft did not rise to power on arrogance; Microsoft rose to power based upon imitation and brilliant (aggressive?) marketing. Look at sectors driven by Microsoft's "arrogance".

      Is the Xbox making money, or gaining marketshare proportional to MS's investment?
      Is MSN making money, or gaining marketshare proportional to MS's investment?
      How about Windows Defender? Or Microsoft Passport? How about the variety of MS Home Entertainment (Media Center, Media Keyboard, MS Remote control, WinCE for DVD players, etc . . .) offerings?

      Take a look

      MS has tons of money; but they aren't generating revenue on their "new businesses". They rake in monopoly profits using unfair marketing tactics (and they've been found guilty of these actions in court, domestically and internationally), and plow that into other sectors of the market, hoping to distort them the same way they've managed to distort the OS and Office markets. This does not demonstrate business acumen; on the other hand, it demonstrates that they suck, real bad, at developing new markets. If Microsoft didn't have billions in the bank its new product offerings would not even blip on the radar.

      Take a look at their 5 year share price

      Make no mistake; Microsoft is doing something wrong, and me, the GP poster, and the stock market know this. Why do you still have your head stuck up your ass?

      Previous financial success does not guarantee future success. It certainly helps, and can be a necessary condition, but is not sufficient. Making statements on how you "own" a market (enterprise search) in which you have no product offerings versus established competitors implies that your delusions are growing worse, not better. These coarse statements by a policy maker at Microsoft should not, and will not, make shareholders comfortable.

      --
      WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
    7. Re:Wow, NEWS! by Tanamo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They don't need to, they just need to stay better at it than them.

    8. Re:Wow, NEWS! by Fordiman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Naw. Business is usually competition between better products, better marketing, and better cost controls.

      Microsoft has none of these, and thus has to resort to this kind of chest beating.

      --
      110100 1101000 1101000 1100110 0 1101111 1101000 1100011 1
    9. Re:Wow, NEWS! by Chosen+Reject · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Before you bash people you ought to understand them. Yes MS is being a little arrogant, and yes that is to be expected not only from a business but also a business of their size. Then again the person you replied to has some points that you are ignoring, perhaps purposely, which shows you're not paying attention.

      MS got big buy doing what some call shady business practices, others call excellent business tactics. In either case, it wasn't by them telling a competitor openly not to stop on their terrain. Their two big products are Windows and Office. The GP mentions some other things that they are failing at big time. His point is that now that MS is big, they can't seem to do anything else. They have money and resources to make something spectacular and yet they can't seem to do it. For all the money and effort they are or were pouring into MSN, passport, hotmail, home entertainment, etc. they are making back neither money nor market share in any way comparable. For those reasons, if MS didn't have billions stored up, those products would hardly see the light of day or be worth considering. If someone else was making MSN, how many people would be using it? If someone else was making Defender, how many people would care? If someone else was making the Xbox, would anyone have ever heard of t he Xbox 360? Probably, most of those products would have been abysmal failures, or slightly profitable at best. They are feeding off of brand name and the revenue of other offerings. They aren't better in any way.

      Too bad a five-year share price history doesn't mean anything for the vitality of the company in the overall scheme of things

      I know you were being sarcastic, but it was not related to what the parent was saying. MS is a profitable company, and their stocks continue to rise over time. That makes them an excellent company in the eyes of stock holders. They come out with new products, expanding their assets again making them an excellent company for stock holders. But they are riding on the coattails of Office and Windows alone. They have very few other profitable products, let alone big revenue generators. Hence, the GP said "If Microsoft didn't have billions in the bank its new product offerings would not even blip on the radar."

      Now for the mistruths in your post: Consoles are NOT always a loss leader. Nintendo has only sold their consoles at a loss for a few months total and even then they lose single digits on each sale when they do. Overall however, they have made money on their hardware while the software revenue was just icing on the cake. MS lost $5 billion (that's with a b) on the Xbox. Sony is also starting to turn a profit in hardware, but they have been rolling in money from software. Being first also did nothing to force neither Sony's nor Nintendo's hand. Both companies have been working on their next-gen systems for a while. Nintendo didn't just come up with the Wii's controller overnight, nor did Sony invent the Cell on a whim, because MS came out with a new console first.

      --
      Stop Global Warming!
      Just say no to irreversible processes!
  2. that's great, but why? by tehwebguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    everyone at microsoft has lost far too much hair over google..

    google products and servers really only even compete with a few microsoft ones, why don't they stop focusing on a competitor that they have essentially imagined and start focusing on making vista worth upgrading to

    --
    -- lol pwned
    1. Re:that's great, but why? by ClamIAm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      google products and servers really only even compete with a few microsoft ones,

      There are a couple of angles I see this whole "battle" from. One is that monopolies don't last forever, and MS needs to move into new markets so that they can survive after Windows + Office falters. Google is a big competitor in the areas of information services.

      The other is that Microsoft has traditionally made lots of money by tying products together so that competitors cannot interoperate on their platform. By "platform", I mean Windows, Windows Server, Exchange, Office, and so on. Google is a threat here, as many of their services simply need a web browser, bypassing the MS platform completely.

      Disregarding the two points above, Google probably still scares the hell out of Microsoft. Google is a much more chaotic force than MS, releasing weird new tools that are a by-product of allowing your coders to work on "fun" projects. They are also a much more agile company: MS relies on having Windows pre-installed at retail, as well as long-term licensing contracts. This strategy takes a few years to get the new products entrenched (see the uptake of new MS operating systems over time for a good example). Google can throw a new app up on their site any time they want.

  3. Classic late-stage empire behavior by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Companies, like countries, tend to talk the toughest when they're in trouble. Seeing their domains as God-given rights instead of something they had to work for, making threats they can't back up, getting into fights with much smaller competitors that it seems like they should be able to win easily but somehow can't ... Yep.

    If I were a Microsoft stockholder or employee, I'd be very worried right now.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    1. Re:Classic late-stage empire behavior by MuNansen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's actually true of commercial pop music artists, too. Look at the songs put out at the end of the New Kids, N'Sync, and Britney Spears' careers. Always something about how tough they are and how they'll be around for a long time....meaning one more week.

    2. Re:Classic late-stage empire behavior by MooseByte · · Score: 5, Insightful
      "And when MS falls, who do people turn to?"

      Any number of innovative solutions that will flourish freely in a far more open market. MS will not simply disappear overnight, as you seem to imply. It's in the midst of a long slide into being just another player, and one with a crappy reputation (well earned) at that. As that curve descends, the solution curve from other vendors continues to rise.

      An additional sign of MS's slide beneath the waters is the current crop of college new-grads. All the ones I speak with (recent hires, during interviews, socially etc.) view Microsoft as a plague. Couple that with the observation higher up of "falling empires scream their loudest", plus general consumer sentiment of "MS sucks" (among even my non-techie friends and relatives), and there's not much that can be done. MS has lost mindshare, and they are technically not capable of turning their ship around.

    3. Re:Classic late-stage empire behavior by kimvette · · Score: 2, Informative

      One can't buy a Mac without OS X? Where have you been for the last 12 months?

      Here is how to figure out what their margin is:

        1, Pick a good stylish-but-not-tacky gamer case (Lian-Li, Antec Sonata) and go with that price, (or an Asus or Shuttle enclosure/board if the Mac Mini for the PC equivalent)
        2. Pick a motherboard with same chipset and similar features to the Mac in question's motherboard
        3. Pick a video card with same chipset and similar features to the Mac in question video card
        4. Pick the same or a similar optical drive
        5. Pick a good keyboard and an average mouse
        6. Pick the same HDD
        7. Processor, Etc. (complete list based on configuration)

      Add the parts together, based on Newegg's pricing (they're fairly close to wholesale). Subtract from retail price. Add cost of off-the-shelf OS X. You have what is somewhere in the ballpark of their margin, not taking into account volume discounts and padding for warranty service.

      When they were on the PPC platform it was a good deal harder to figure out what their margins are, because their motherboards were 100% proprietary, and just adding up the cost for the Foxconn components really didn't give you the price of the boards. Now they're pretty much commodity parts and it's relatively easy to discern. Of course, you don't know if their volume discount is 1%, 3%, 10%, or 20%, but based on sales figures and what discount, say, Tech Data or Ingram Micro will give based on specified # of units, you can arrive at a fairly good guesstimate of what Apple is paying for components, within a couple of percentage points. Also, Apple deals with volumes large enough to buy directly from Intel, and I'm sure Intel gave them HUGE concessions to move away from IBM/Motorola/PPC for the PR, so it is safe to presume Intel is just about giving away the processors, and charging a slim margin over material costs.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    4. Re:Classic late-stage empire behavior by mcvos · · Score: 2, Funny
      hat's actually true of commercial pop music artists, too. Look at the songs put out at the end of the New Kids, N'Sync, and Britney Spears' careers. Always something about how tough they are and how they'll be around for a long time....meaning one more week.
      Wasn't it the Backstreet Boys that threatened us with: "As long as there is music we'll keep coming back again"?
  4. I'll have to turn in my google search appliance by rob_squared · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Too bad, its been around for a while too:

    http://www.google.com/enterprise/

    --
    I don't get it.
  5. Uh... by Skreems · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google's corporate search appliance has been around for how many years? And since when did Microsoft have a corporate search program anyway?

    --
    Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
    The Urban Hippie
    1. Re:Uh... by nxtw · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would imagine that any such system would be built upon the Indexing Service, which is a very useful tool. With the right configuration and software, it can implement a service very similar to Google Desktop or something similar to the Enterprise service.

      It works for me without any work other than telling it what to search: by turning it on on a Windows 2003 server and telling it to index a drive, a standard Windows search on that drive will use the index... even over the network. And that's all I personally need it for.

    2. Re:Uh... by killjoe · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow, indexing a drive. How cool. I wonder if anybody else has ever done that before.

      --
      evil is as evil does
    3. Re:Uh... by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would imagine that any such system would be built upon the Indexing Service, which is a very useful tool.

      Did you mean to refer to the absolutely horrible, performance-crippling service that EVERY Windows user should disable as the first thing they do on a new install (actually on SP2 boxen they have it turned off by default, thank Zeus)?

      If so - Performance aside, that doesn't really count as "enterprise" level search. Desktop search amounts to nothing more than an index of local files; Enterprise search means coordinating that info across numerous machines and, frequently, several different physical sites connected by pipes of unknown (a priori) speed and reliability.

  6. google already dominates by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business

    Google dominates over MSN in consumer search. Does this guy honestly think they won't dominate Microsoft in Enterprise search? Why not back up his statement with a good reason why Google won't take MS to the woodshed on this one?

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
    1. Re:google already dominates by DahGhostfacedFiddlah · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Maybe their vision of an "enterprise search" is something like a search engine, not a method of selling eyeballs to advertisers.

      --
      Last post!
  7. Microsoft have nothing to fear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful


    after all, if they have the better product then why should they be worried about Google ?

  8. business not personal by blinder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    here's what i don't get. do they (microsoft) teach their executives that the business is personal? i mean, sheesh... never before have a bunch of executives looked more like a bunch of cry-baby drama queens (and i'm no google fanboy).

    a note to microsoft executives: no, google is not trying to take food off *your* plate. they are competing with you. if you can't take it, then quit and go away. the cry-baby routine is quite boring and not terribly becoming for an executive of a major international corporation.

    --
    sad robot making broken music
    1. Re:business not personal by kfg · · Score: 2, Informative

      do they (microsoft) teach their executives that the business is personal?

      Yes. Ooooooooh, not overtly, but it is the defining aspect of Microsoft's corporate culture, directly tracable to the personality of Bill himself; a man who will get mad at you when you beat him at ping pong, because "you embaressed me in front of my friends."

      KFG

  9. I smell fear by bnf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmm,

    Seems like the COO of an industry leading company should be more stalwart in his analysis of a market if indeed his company is the market leader. You're so much better off barely acknowledging the competition. You really shouldnt' even mention their name unless completely necessary. If he displays anything other than the facade of market leadership then it would seem to me that he's really not so sure of his market position.

    Good luck to him and his company who's shares will probably be dropping in value once again. ;)

    --

    this space intentionally left blank (oops)

  10. what cha gonna do, throw a chair? by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess there'll be Microsoft guys with chairs waiting to "totally kill" Google as their servers come into a corp search environment. Or maybe MSN Corporate, Chair Throwing Edition will clobber the server itself virtually by blocking anything from *.google.gom, silently of course. /joke

    --
    stuff |
  11. And in related news... by JonTurner · · Score: 4, Funny

    And in related news, Microsoft announced today that CorporateSearch(tm) was being dropped from Vista.

  12. somewhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    deep with the Googleplex (or whatever it is called) deep evil laughs erupt ... but change to a Nelson haha when they remeber their motto (something to do with no evil).

  13. Oh, pardon me, we didn't realize by Kohath · · Score: 5, Funny

    Enterprise Search is Microsoft's? We didn't realize that. We're sorry. We really wanted to sell Enterprise Search services. But hey, you got dibs on it, so nevermind. Didn't mean to crowd you. Please accept our apologies.

    See ya later. And don't be evil.

  14. Agree... nice to see enterprises positioned as... by leonbrooks · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ..."food", isn't it?

    And if a whole enterprise is a piece of "food" for MS, where does that leave an individual?

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
  15. This may come across as flamebait, but ... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does Microsoft even have a shipping product that does this?

    I will freely admit that I may just not be informed in this area - but I didn't know Microsoft even did enterprise-level search stuff. I can't recall ever seeing articles in the trade press about it either.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:This may come across as flamebait, but ... by John+Courtland · · Score: 2, Informative

      The only thing I can think of is their free text searching as part of their SQL Server, and the mssearch.exe indexing engine. Certainly, if they have an "enterprise search solution" that goes beyond the two I mentioned, it hasn't been marketed well enough.

      --
      Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
    2. Re:This may come across as flamebait, but ... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

      Their corporate search product is called Windows Genuine Advantage. :)

  16. Melodramatic Much? by walnutmon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off our plate"

    Dear god! Hide your dinner plates, or google will take to stealing the food from your childrens figurtive mouths...

    This article missed his less publicized quote "Google is trying to rape our women, and eat our children, FREEEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!"

    --
    You take it, I don't want it...
  17. Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by AngryDill · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Wow. It's shocking to me how many people here are ready to write Microsoft off. People seem to think that the end is near; that Google and others will be some kind of threat to them.

    So many people are forgetting the lessons of history.

    Once I used to think that MS Word would never overtake WordPerfect; that WordPerfect had too big a lead
    Once I used to think that IE would never overtake Netscape; that Netscape had too much mindshare
    Once I used to think that WinCE would never overtake Palm; that Palm was the perennial favorite
    I've since wisened up, and will never underestimate Microsoft again.

    The historical scoreboard of Microsoft versus competitors, for those to young to remember:
    • MS-DOS beat CP/M-80, DR-DOS
    • Windows beat Mac OS, GEM, OS/2, Desqview, etc.
    • Word beat WordPerfect, Wordstar, Wordpro
    • Excel beat 123, Quattro
    • Access beat dBase, Paradox, Approach
    • Outlook beat Eudora, ACT
    • PowerPoint beat Harvard Graphics
    • Encarta beat Compton's
    • Exchange beat Notes
    • Frontpage beat Composer
    • Visual Basic beat Power Basic, Turbo Basic
    • Visual C beat Borland C, Lightspeed C, etc.
    • MS-Publisher beat Ventura
    • Internet Explorer beat Netscape, Opera, Mozilla
    • Visio has no real competition
    • Win-CE beat Palm
    • WMP beat RealPlayer
    • Project leads its market
    • Halo 1,2 is king of the FPS games
    • Visual Studio leads all competitors by far

    Looking at the current market share battles:

    • MSN is overtaking AOL
    • .NET is beating Java
    • Money leads Quicken
    • MSN Messenger is beating ICQ, AIM, Y!Messenger
    • X-Boxen are outselling Sony Playstatia
    • IIS is gaining on Apache
    • SQL Server is catching up to Oracle
    • MSN Seach is gaining market share against Google and Yahoo
    • Windows growth is outpacing Unix, Linux

    People will often joke about MS "Bob" - myself included. But Bob is one of very few actual Microsoft market failures. Virtually every other MS product either already dominates its field, or is projected to do so.

    I'm not a Microsoft shill; far from it. I'm proud to count myself among those with the deepest disdain for the company. Currently, I am an enthusiastic Linux, KDE, OpenOffice.org, and Firefox afficianado. Before that, it was always "anything but Microsoft." As much as I'd like this to be the beginning of the end for MS, I cannot kid myself.

    Look at the facts:

    1. Microsoft is still the richest, most popular, and most powerful IT company in the world
    2. It still has the rare advantage of being able to buy out or undersell almost any competitor (hell, it could buy most governments!)
    3. It has proven time and time again that it can violate business laws, effectively with impunity
    4. It makes more money by breaking the rules (and paying the invariably-modest penalty) that it would had it actually followed them
    5. It is still being run by the richest man in the known universe; who will continue on as Chairman
    6. Microsoft has powerful stallwart allies: Dell, Intel, the BSA, the Bush administration's Justice Department, etc.
    7. It remains the favorite of the press (Ziff-Davis, CMP, et. al.) and of many CIOs
    8. Most companies worldwide have picked Microsoft as their primary (in many cases only) software publisher
    9. MS is not above using very nasty FUD to sell its products, which the pointy-haired crowd spouts as gospel
    10. It has millions of customers locked in on its proprietary file formats and protocols
    11. MS has plenty of marketing help. Virtually all computer manufacturers (yes, even IBM) recommend Microsoft operating systems in all their advertising materials (I always look)
    12. Microsoft has weapons it hasn't even started to use against competitors: i.
    --


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    1. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by shawb · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's a Bill Murray movie that you're forgetting.

      Mods: this post is not offtopic, check the title of the film. That, and Bill Murray is NEVER offtopic. NEVER!

      --
      I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
    2. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by timmarhy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      IIS is gaining on Apache / SQL Server is catching up to Oracle / Windows growth is outpacing Unix, Linux

      don't make me fucking laugh.

      of all your list the only examples which are even remotely true, is in cases where MS has been able to leverage it's OS monopoly to stiffle competition.
      the only other way it's ever able to gain a foothold is to LOSE MONEY on a product eg. xbox. and they can't keep going into market losing money like that, even MS's bank account has it's limits.

      --
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    3. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You may very well be right. In fact, I even hope you are because I recently started working at Microsoft.

      However, there is one thing that is different in this case. It was only recently that Microsoft lost its place as the most desirable software company to work for. Maybe it's still second best, and definitely it's still close to the top, but now, some other company is now the holy grail for the ambitious recent computer science graduate. I applied for Google and wasn't even given a phone interview.

      Were any of the failed Microsoft competitors on your list anywhere close to being equal (or greater than) Microsoft on the smart kid's job wishlist? Were any of the other companies capable of stealing away the best and the brightest from Microsoft?

      Someone could argue that just having the best/smartest employees won't ensure success, but I don't think there has ever been a time in Microsoft's history where they have had to compete with a company higher than them on the hiring pecking order.

      In my opinion, that's the big difference between Microsoft's past competitors and Google.

      Microsoft isn't going down any time soon (ever?), but this new challenge may be its hardest yet. Google's got search down really well, and its employees are at least as talented, if not more.

    4. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hmm, you started out with a fairly interesting post, but the facts are incorrect in the second half. Forinstance IIS/Apache usage rates have been historically seen fairly much the same, as of now MS has not been able to get IIS out of this standard range. Also it is google that was growing at the loss of yahoo and msn, or atleast one of the two. I don't about .net, but it is becoming less elevant due to OSS implementations of it making it possible to run more and more aspects of it on other OSs. Xboxes don't outsell Playstation, it is the other way around, PS2 sells more then Xbox360 to the humilitation pretty much of MS, considering how the other is a generation old.

      There are further inaccuracies in the second half, but it doesn't really matter further. Microsoft isn't unstoppable and lately they have been showing signs in faltering in some fields, besides that the EU is becoming increasingly unignorable in their rulings and they can't really afford to keep antagonising them. Now wether they falter or not, this doesn't mean they are suddenly dead, just that they can't win all battles, in the end some things arn't for them to dominate however much they would want to. And seriously, if they don't watch it they will be wiped out by Linux or some other OS, because contrary to what you say those have slowly been gaining market share, not losing them.

    5. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by dmdollar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People on Slashdot constantly complain about how corporations these days tend to value the short-term stock increase over the long-term investment. A 4 billion investment is absolutely worth it if they manage to gain dominance of the living room. It doesn't look like it's working out so far, but only time will tell.

    6. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Win-CE beat Palm

      Say what?

      Microsoft doesn't even have second place in that market. Find me a guy with a real management job that doesn't have either a Blackberry or a Treo 650 as his/her palmtop computing platform, and I'll show you a Microsoft employee, or review site owner.

    7. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by AngryDill · · Score: 2, Informative
      >>IIS is gaining on Apache / SQL Server is catching up to Oracle / Windows growth is outpacing Unix, Linux

      >don't make me fucking laugh.

      You're laughing? More like living in denial.

      But, hey, who needs facts for that "5" rating, when you just tell most slashdotters what they want to hear?

      --


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    8. Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!! by 10Ghz · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Microsoft continues to gain share in the web server market, chipping away at Apache's commanding lead


      Oh yes, MS gained 4.25% by paying registars to move unused parked domains to IIS. So the current market-share for IIS is 29.71%, whereas Apache has 61.25%. If that means that IIS is "beating" Apache, then Firefox is eating IE alive, since it's gaining market-share from IE fast. Strange thing that you weren't telling us THAT little fact.

      Windows narrowly bumped Unix in 2005 to claim the top spot in server sales for the first time


      And how exactly does that prove that Windows is growing faster than Linux is?
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  18. And in other news.... by dracken · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...Google founder Larry Page in a press conference said "Google is getting out of corporate search business, Microsoft COO warned us away. We are now warning Microsoft away from the OS business"

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer upon hearing this threw a chair across his office and said "Damn ! okay, Lets get out of the OS business, Google warned us away. Send a warning out to Intel to get out of the Chip making business"

    Paul Otellini, pulling Intel out of its core Processor business said "Intel is looking for other high-tech sectors to enter...After issuing appropriate warning to the current market leaders of course"

    What a lame story !

  19. MS needs to deliver a product before talking by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I normally try to avoid the Slashdot groupthink ("Apple good! M$ bad! blah blah blah") but this is one instance where ridicule is warranted.

    Microsoft has NEVER owned the enterprise search space. They don't have a single corporate appliance to help search large volumes. Their search in Exchange is downright disgraceful. Personally, I won't touch their indexing service (about a month after it came out in Windows 2000, they found security holes with it. Thanks but no thanks).

    If they're talking about local search, things are just as bad. Their puppy mascot takes forever to find files, and if a file is removed or deleted from the search window, explorer.exe gets freaked out and sometimes puts up an error message.

    It says volumes that 3rd-party companies have an easier time finding files on Microsoft volumes than MS's own tools. I personally use Google desktop. While it can take forever to load, it finds files and emails lightning quick. If you download it, be sure to try searching in email (both using Outlook's search and Google's toolbar) -- you'll be amazed at the difference.

    MS has to produce something, anything, that says their serious about search. Windows Vista is their one shot, and it's looking pretty bad. It does something from a UI standpoint I find kind of ludicrous: you open the Start Menu, type a few letters to find a program and, if it can't find it, it looks for files and then searches the web through MSN. Huh? MS put it in the Programs menu -- it should search for programs. For reference, if you use the Spotlight search feature on Mac within System Preferences, it searches just that -- System Preferences. It doesn't look for files or search the web.

    1. Re:MS needs to deliver a product before talking by cab15625 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, for local searches, I've had situations where it was easier to boot into the linux and use "grep" on my windows partition. If that doesn't suggest that something needs fixing, I don't know what does.

      PS: no, this isn't a joke.

  20. A monologue by peterfa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ok, this is really bad. "Google, that terrorist organization, threatens the American way of life because they threaten the very fabric of our economy, taking away the food from our sickly childrens' mouths." -- a really poor misquote. Please don't mod me down troll or flamebait. **trembles**

  21. Re:As my grandma would say by thatguygriff · · Score: 2, Funny

    Then do us a favour and jump off of it....

  22. At last check, by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Microsoft wasn't a player in corporate search. Autonomy, IBM and (surprise!) Google were the players in that market.

    And in other news, I'm warning Ferrari not to take away the Aston Martin that's in my driveway. It's there. Really. Ok, so no one but me can see it, but I'm warning you, Ferrari, BACK OFF!!!

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  23. Use the full quote, wouldya? by Kamineko · · Score: 5, Informative
    "Those people are not going to be allowed to take food off our plate, because that is what they are intending to do ... Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business"


    The rest of that quote reads:


    "... unless, of course, their product is better than ours. In which case, they will attract new customers, together with customers from our existing customer base. Which... I guess you could call taking our business."


    Honest, guv!

  24. Re:Fuck Google. by timmarhy · · Score: 3, Funny

    600 pounds is a really small elephant, and not at all scary.

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  25. Echos from the past by bsandersen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And I'm sure the *NIX and VMS marketplace remembers saying that Microsoft can have the desktop but _WE_ own the server room.

  26. Google to Microsoft. by jcr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dear Bill and Monkey-boy:

    You suck at searching. We're eating your lunch. Take it like a man, or we'll slap WINE on Ubuntu and liberate your victims.

    Hugs,

    Google.

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  27. Sharepoint lockout! by rwa2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At the big company I work for, Google search powers the intranet seach engine. On the other hand, almost all of the new websites being set up are done in Sharepoint. Due to export laws, just about everything has to be password protected on a per-user basis, to be sure that no unreviewed technical information (=pretty much everything) gets inadvertantly passed on to foreign national employees (everyone with an H1B visa or even US citizen workers who work for subsidiaries based in foreign countries).

    So, pretty much, our internal Google search is useless for finding any useful information, because all of the most active stuff is closed away in Sharepoint. So the google search appliance is at a disadvantage until it can support user / group ACLs and stuff.

    Google could handily beat MS at enterprise search once they beat them at groupware... which shouldn't be too hard, save for MS's tight sharepoint integration with Exchange/Outlook. Fortunately, Google appears to be advancing on all these fronts, so they have their work cut out for them. But in the mean time, it looks like the MS exec has a point.

    1. Re:Sharepoint lockout! by trevoreats · · Score: 3, Informative
      Hmmm, looks like they already support access control: http://www.google.com/enterprise/gsa/features.html #security

      And somebody's done open source Sharepoint integration: http://code.google.com/enterprise/opensource/index .html

    2. Re:Sharepoint lockout! by ccozan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Try autonomy (autonomy.com). They are actually the market leaders when it comes to enterprise search. Forget about Microsoft or Google.

  28. SWISH-E by eluusive · · Score: 2

    Sorry Microsoft, you must have missed the memo. SWISH-E stole your business years ago.

  29. my students by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You should talk to my students (I'm a university professor type being anonymous for the obvious reasons). They are all (almost) convinced that they only need to learn Microsoft products and that Microsoft will Live Forever as the primary OS and application vendor in the world. Sadly, some of them are convinced that they actually know something about computers since they know how to use a Microsoft GUI. They're seriously mistaken in that.

  30. What else? by patiodragon · · Score: 2, Funny

    "And if a whole enterprise is a piece of 'food' for MS, where does that leave an individual?"

    An after-dinner mint.

  31. and remember when by Phantom+of+the+Opera · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No one could beat IBM.

  32. I would have thought... by dohzer · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...the chair would have been enough of a warning. I guess they just didn't get the message.

  33. Microsoft, Google both fail to see the big picture by CurtMonash · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Corporate search technology isn't good enough. And it's not going to get good enough until it's informed by much better ontologies/taxonomies. What's more, when the required ontology/taxonomy engines and business processes finally exist, they won't just be used for search; they'll also be used for text mining, knowledge extraction, speech recognition, and so on. So far as I can tell, none of the big generalists or small linguistics specialist companies understand this point, or else the ones that do are really small and lack the resources to do anything about it.

    The first company to break that logjam will be a huge winner, with a market opportunity comparable at least to that of, say, app servers. Unless, of course, the whole thing is just open-sourced.

    I've written up most of that argument in http://www.texttechnologies.com/2005/12/11/the-tex t-technologies-market-3-heres-whats-missing/ and related articles. The big missing piece (about the open source alternative) is coming soon, on the same site, and perhaps in my next Computerworld column as well.

    One thing in Google's favor, however, is their internal use of knowledge extraction. They seem to really be ahead of the competition in that regard.

    Meanwhile, I've got to say -- search is one of the areas where Microsoft has been saber-rattling for a long time, to little effect. Just a couple of quick examples of what I mean:

    1. In 1997, I was at the Verity user's conference, and a Microsoft guy there told me how Microsoft would soon be in the business.

    2. A few years ago, a woman emailed me and told me she'd just joined Microsoft, and was personally writing all of their web search algorithms.

    --
    To err is human. To forgive is good system design.
  34. fight songs... by jarg0n · · Score: 3, Funny
    Some of 'em even sing stupid fight songs.

    We're Not Gonna Take It!

    no, We Ain't Gonna Take It!

    We're Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

    --
    Error 2101: all your sig are belong to us
  35. I like a bit of MS bashing... by PinkyDead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... as much as the next person, but I think it's unfair from reading TFA to call arrogant on them.

    These quotes come from a company conference - and this guy is just giving a 'rallying the troops' type speech. He's not telling Google to keep out of Enterprise searches, he's telling his own staff that they are going to (try to) keep Google out of that market (good luck!). There's a big difference.

    You can be sure that at a Google company conference, Turner's counterpart is telling their staff that Enterprise searches are their right and they are going to take them from MS.

    --
    Genesis 1:32 And God typed :wq!
  36. Smart move from MS by xbrownx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't quotes like this just help to inspire and motivate your competitors?

  37. Goodwin by Morosoph · · Score: 2, Funny
    After all.... according to the rules of debate, the first one that resorts to ad hominem loses.
    Bah. Only a Nazi would say that!
    --
    Wikileaks, no DNS
  38. Re: What is the Microsoft alternative by rmerrill11 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Question:
    Does Microsoft even have a shipping product that does this?

    Yes Microsoft offers the "Indexing Service" as of Windows 2000.
    About the Windows Indexing Service

    At our company we found this to provide amazingly, mind-bogglingly bad search results.

    Just last month we ripped the Microsoft solution and replaced it with a Google Mini, and are in the process of evaluating an upgrade to the Google Onebox.

    We are much happier with the Google system's search results.

    (FYI: Even the Mini allows for you to add NTLM (Windows) user-ID's and passwords so that it can search Sharepoint sites, and other restricted access content.)