Microsoft COO Warns Google Away From Corp Search

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"

Comments

Wow, NEWS!

[mboverload]

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

Jesus Zonk, why did you approve this story?

Re:Wow, NEWS!

[Daniel Dvorkin]

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.

Re:Wow, NEWS!

[kfg]

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

Re:Wow, NEWS!

[StarvingSE]

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.

that's great, but why?

[tehwebguy]

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

Re:that's great, but why?

[ClamIAm]

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.

Classic late-stage empire behavior

[Daniel Dvorkin]

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.

Re:Classic late-stage empire behavior

[MooseByte]

"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.

I'll have to turn in my google search appliance

[rob_squared]

Too bad, its been around for a while too:

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

Uh...

[Skreems]

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

Re:Uh...

[nxtw]

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.

Re:Uh...

[pla]

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.

google already dominates

[macadamia_harold]

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?

business not personal

[blinder]

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.

I smell fear

[bnf]

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. ;)

And in related news...

[JonTurner]

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

somewhere

[Anonymous Coward]

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).

Oh, pardon me, we didn't realize

[Kohath]

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.

Google doesn't stand a chance!!!

[AngryDill]

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.

Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!!

[shawb]

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!

Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!!

[timmarhy]

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.

Re:Google doesn't stand a chance!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

MS needs to deliver a product before talking

[SilentChris]

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.

Use the full quote, wouldya?

[Kamineko]

"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!

Sharepoint lockout!

[rwa2]

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.

Re:This may come across as flamebait, but ...

[DoofusOfDeath]

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

I like a bit of MS bashing...

[PinkyDead]

... 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.