Tough Love For Microsoft Search
A really great summary of the state of the game across Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. Each has their nemesis.
Yahoo Incompetence
“So why not take Yahoo back to being a start-up? C’mon investment types, can’t Yahoo spin out its search assets into a separate company? A private one with Yahoo having a huge share? Then employees can take that gamble again for a big start-up payoff if the IPO down the line does well. Autonomy did it with Blinkx. Do that and maybe you’d find some frustrated Google talent flowing back to Yahoo. Hey, maybe someday Google will want a deal for Yahoo’s ads. Heh.”
Yahoo has to find the right way of working to get its mojo back. But it also needs to be clear about its brand/product to get beyond quarterly results delivery.
Google Trust
“The secret to its success? For me, it’s what I’ve been calling the “Google Hive Mind. ” Rather than follow a rigid top-down master plan, the company’s direction and success has been shaped by decisions often taken independently of how they’ll benefit the company as a whole. But collectively, those decisions DO form a master plan, a hive mind that dictates what the company will do….But that’s also a weakness: Google may seem too threatening to those same customers, as it grows. As it expands and expands, some of those outside the hive begin wondering if it needs to be constrained.”
I think the trust issue is a good story for the media to peddle, rather than a serious issue now. But Battelle notes that it increasingly gets air time.
Microsoft Passion
“As Google goes into its 11th year, I see the company picking up the mantle from Microsoft in the way that Microsoft seemed to carry on from IBM. It’s Google’s era, in all likelihood. Of course, this is exactly what Rich Skrenta was saying back in January 2007, with his insightful Winner-Take-All: Google and the Third Age of Computing post. Over a year later, Microsoft’s only gone from bad to worse in the quest against Google.
Really consider what Skrenta wrote at the end of his piece:
Nobody even bothers asking why IBM isn’t a player in consumer search. IBM and consumer websites just don’t have anything to do with one another. PC software and websites don’t have anything to do with each other either.
Exactly. Microsoft has no predetermined destiny to be successful in consumer search any more than IBM had one to be successful with consumer PCs“
It needs to really want it...
A really great summary of the state of the game across Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. Each has their nemesis.
Yahoo Incompetence
“So why not take Yahoo back to being a start-up? C’mon investment types, can’t Yahoo spin out its search assets into a separate company? A private one with Yahoo having a huge share? Then employees can take that gamble again for a big start-up payoff if the IPO down the line does well. Autonomy did it with Blinkx. Do that and maybe you’d find some frustrated Google talent flowing back to Yahoo. Hey, maybe someday Google will want a deal for Yahoo’s ads. Heh.”
Yahoo has to find the right way of working to get its mojo back. But it also needs to be clear about its brand/product to get beyond quarterly results delivery.
Google Trust
“The secret to its success? For me, it’s what I’ve been calling the “Google Hive Mind. ” Rather than follow a rigid top-down master plan, the company’s direction and success has been shaped by decisions often taken independently of how they’ll benefit the company as a whole. But collectively, those decisions DO form a master plan, a hive mind that dictates what the company will do….But that’s also a weakness: Google may seem too threatening to those same customers, as it grows. As it expands and expands, some of those outside the hive begin wondering if it needs to be constrained.”
I think the trust issue is a good story for the media to peddle, rather than a serious issue now. But Battelle notes that it increasingly gets air time.
Microsoft Passion
“As Google goes into its 11th year, I see the company picking up the mantle from Microsoft in the way that Microsoft seemed to carry on from IBM. It’s Google’s era, in all likelihood. Of course, this is exactly what Rich Skrenta was saying back in January 2007, with his insightful Winner-Take-All: Google and the Third Age of Computing post. Over a year later, Microsoft’s only gone from bad to worse in the quest against Google.
Really consider what Skrenta wrote at the end of his piece:
Nobody even bothers asking why IBM isn’t a player in consumer search. IBM and consumer websites just don’t have anything to do with one another. PC software and websites don’t have anything to do with each other either.
Exactly. Microsoft has no predetermined destiny to be successful in consumer search any more than IBM had one to be successful with consumer PCs“
It needs to really want it...
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