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Microsoft Buys Search Engine, Going After Google?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the yeah-sure-why-not dept.

obsolete1349 writes "Microsoft has just bid 1.2 billion dollars for FAST (Fast Search And Transfer [Microsoft to use a self-recursive acronym?]), an enterprise search company. 'Microsoft can bundle FAST with its Microsoft Office SharePoint Server' with its soon-to-be-customers Comcast, Disney, Microsoft, Pfizer, and UBS."

6 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Recursive acronym... but... by CyanDisaster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm thinking FAst Search and Transfer...FAST...

    Hope be with ye,
    Cyan

  2. FAST? by oahazmatt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft has just bid 1.2 billion dollars for FAST (Fast Search And Transfer
    Wouldn't that be FSAT?

    That aside, I see Microsoft as a company that's losing direction by pulling itself in too many at once. The company seems to be Hell-bent on conquering every corner of their market, and then any markets they hadn't originally targeted. I feel that a lot of their recent releases on their broad spectrum of product lines have been rather mediocre.

    I can see why the company may believe it is necessary to incorperate this into their other products, but didn't Microsoft already introduce a search engine that was supposed to compete with Google? Wasn't that what Live was for?
    --
    Those who believe the Internet is private,
    find their privates are on the Internet.
  3. Re:MS paid too much for bad software by INeededALogin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A company that is incapable of profiting from its products normally indicates that the product is lacking.

    or...

    the market is saturated
    the market is not ready
    the company can't market

    If the technology is good then Microsoft probably wants to use it and prevent Yahoo, Google and others from buying it.

  4. I don't get it.... by misleb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How can a search engine that nobody has ever heard of be worth 1.3 billion? Especially if they only plan on integrating it with Office. How hard coudl it possibly be to develop a search engine for Office from scratch? Certainly it wouldn't cost anywhere near 1.2 BILLION. And when you buy someone else's engine, you still have to integrate it with your software which, depending on how different the code bases are, can be nearly as difficult as just doing it from scratch. So.. WTF? I'd understand if they were buying some big name engine to get a Brand and customers and such. But this? Sounds like a money waster.

    -matthew

    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  5. Re:self-recursive acronym by sammy+baby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Plus, FAST doesn't really qualify as a recursive acronym. The F in the acronym FAST stands for the word fast, not for the acronym itself. Contrast with GNU (GNU's Not Unix), or PINE (Pine Is Not Elm) or...

    Oh wait - nobody cares. Nevermind.

  6. Re:self-recursive acronym by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    DRM: DRM Rapes Music? ;-)

    (or Movies, your choice)

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!