Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft Buys Search Engine, Going After Google?

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."

9 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. That's ok... by Cytlid · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I'm going to snipe them and bid 1.3 Billion at the last second.

    --
    FLR
    1. Re:That's ok... by BillGod · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Microsoft needs to buy a search engine. A couple months ago I wanted to download XP SP2 on a pc that I just loaded. Since it was just loaded and I opened IE it defaulted to Microsoft's site. I searched for "windows xp service pack 2". After the 4th link that I clicked on that WAS NOT a download for SP2. I went to google. Searched the exact same phrase. First like was the download site at microsoft.com There's something to be said about that.

      --
      MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
  2. Thought MS already had a Google beating ........ by jmhowitt · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..... search engine? Why do they need two?

  3. self-recursive acronym by Yuioup · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft has been using one for quite some time now:

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/nl-nl/directx/aa937793(en-us).aspx

    Q: What does XNA stand for?
    A: XNA's Not Acronymed

    1. 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.

  4. Great by teebob21 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What a wonderful development; MS buys FAST for search, and the majority of the computing world faces a little more SLOW: Software Lock-in On Windows.

    --
    khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
  5. Dyslexic Recursive Acronym by StCredZero · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a Dyslexic Recursive Algorithm, or a DAR.

  6. And the rats are leaving the ship... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems that quite a few FAST employees are currently submitting their resumes to other companies here in Norway at the moment. I've seen more than a couple during the last couple of days.

    Funny, that.

  7. Microsoft, terror of the seven seas! by 6-tew · · Score: 5, Funny

    "There's be gold in them thar Interwebs! Set sail fer Norway!"

    "But Cap'in, the ship! She be takin on water!"

    "Damn the water! Norway and GOLD! ."

    And so the Dread Pirates of Redmond sailed to Norway, but their ship, the M.S.N. Vista, sank on the return trip due to rot brought about by years of shoddy repair work and the weight of countless ill-advised upgrades and too much booty. A combination which had rendered it a lumbering hulk, no longer seaworthy.

    Show of hands, whose surprised Microsoft wants to go after Google?

    Second show of hands, who thinks Pirate metaphors should be used to illustrate everything?

    "Yarrrr!"