Google-Microsoft Crossfire Will Hit Consumers

theodp writes "Newsweek's Dan Lyons doesn't know who will be the winner in Google and Microsoft's search battle, but that's not stopping him from picking a loser — consumers. As we head towards a world where some devices may be free or really cheap, consumers should prepare to be bombarded by ads or pay a premium to escape them. 'The sad truth is that Google and Microsoft care less about making cool products than they do about hurting each other,' concludes Lyons. 'Their fighting has little to do with helping customers and a lot to do with helping themselves to a bigger slice of the money we all spend to buy computers and surf the Internet. Microsoft wants to ruin Google's search business. Google wants to ruin Microsoft's OS business. At the end of the day, they both seem like overgrown nerdy schoolboys fighting over each other's toys.'"

Comments

Re:Business as usual

[cyber-vandal]

For him Microsoft seems like a bad guy because they dare to sell products at a price

And nothing at all to do with being a convicted predatory monopoly that has repeatedly broken the law in order to cement an undeserved position in the marketplace. A reading of some of the anti-trust rulings against them would improve your lack of knowledge here.

Re:Dan 'I'm not a paid shill' Lyons?

[TheRaven64]

If you've been following Groklaw over the last few years...

... then you've probably given up on rational thought and given in to paranoia and conspiracy theories some time ago.

Re:Business as usual

[LaughingCoder]

That's not to hard is it? Sure doesn't feel like lock-in to me

It gets pretty cumbersome if you have 1000s of files ... exporting them one at a time. Hence the lock-in. Sure, if you have a smattering of files it's easy, but it gets exponentially more difficult as your data expands. Perhaps if Google provided a bulk export (save folder as ... ).

Re:Business as usual

[V!NCENT]

And Chromium is not Free Software? Lol... FYI, changes in Chromium by Google are _all_ commited upstream. Talking about not being informed.

Q_Q

The only thing that Google wants is compete with services, because you can fight Microsoft by moving the platform online in the Open Spec arena. Google wants to give away a fast OS because then people will spend visiting more webpages and thus see more Google ads.

OMG... I have to look at Google text ads? OMG!!!111111 one one eleven

Ad block? Bingo!

Then what do I get in return?:
-Gratis phone calls
-Gratis video hosting
-Gratis backups
-Gratis next-gen email with Wave
-Gratis search engine
-Gratis online backup
-Gratis OS
-Gratis normal email with 8GB storage and 10MB attachments
-Gratis whatever else.

Bottomline? Simple, small text ads on your screen that you can block if desired. In return you get tons of gratis uber shizzle.

Don't like Google? Do not use their services.

Everybody else that is not absolutely retarted use Google.