Comments on: Gates at D: MSFT Will Wear White Hat In Search

By: SEO in Costa Rica

SEO in Costa Rica — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 04:08:24 +0000

My favorite Search engine is now Yahoo! Because it’s giving better search results.

By: Timmy

Timmy — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 05:01:05 +0000

Hi to any Webmaster World members reading this.

By: ip0

ip0 — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 03:49:58 +0000

Finally we have 3 really major players in the search business, Yahoo, Google and MS.

By: Money Talk

Money Talk — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:48:31 +0000

It will be nice for Google to have some worthy competition for a change. I don’t know if and when MS will reach that point, but it will be a positive development for searchers to have more choices, and for the engines to have more competition.

By: Chocolate Chip

Chocolate Chip — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:43:07 +0000

Google conquering the desktop search? Please… there’s not need for a desktop search that is independent of an OS… if MS developes a ‘desktop search’ at least comparable to Google, there’s not point in downloading a Google desktop search, Bloogle desktop search, or Snoogle desktop search.

Google now has one thing going for it… the name Google and it’s recognition. With technology officially patented to Stanford and the US Government and an Overture (ney Yahoo) patent infringement (Adwords), they also have their share of problems.

Microsoft will have NO problem equaling the technology behind Google Search and will simply brute force them to death… while I don’t think Google will necessarily die… I’m quite certain they won’t rule for long

By: gulli

gulli — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:24:42 +0000

It will be easy for MS to take market reach away from google/yahoo but right now it doesn't look like they'll have a working system anytime soon.

Not only Longhorn but also msn search get delayed again and again and google gets the desktop search starting, conquering it before MS can do so themself.

By: johnza

johnza — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:13:03 +0000

I have to agree with Dave and JR. Who cares if they are late to the party? Being first hasn’t usually meant going home with the best looking date. It may not be as cool or heroic but learning from, adopting and adapting from others seems like a darn good survival technique to me. Same could be said about Gates comments on blogging. We will see.

By: Kosta

Kosta — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 00:50:08 +0000

Ah yes, Microsoft once again following the leader. Will they take over the frontrunner position? Me thinks its hard to bet against them, they have been so consistently good at taking down the leaders, if not at first, eventually. That desktop thingie they have is a good way to support their products.
As for KP, Dave makes a valid point. KP defines the direction in the valley, the question of course is, is this a good thing?

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 16:16:38 +0000

And the sad thing is that Microsoft doesn't even have to figure it out to wipe up the field. They just have to be better at meeting users' needs, or developers' needs or both. You can hire people to do that, you don't need inspiration. They're very good at studying installed bases, not so good at creating them.

On the other hand, Silicon Valley either 1. Never learns from its mistakes or 2. Only cares about IPOs, not sustained growth. My guess is with KP, it's mostly #2, and since they seem to be at the center of every successful IPO, that pretty much determines the direction for the valley.

By: jr

jr — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 14:41:16 +0000

Yes, but why should microsoft be faster out of the gate? Their business model has always been to allow other companies to do their initial research, take the best ideas from them and then judo the concepts away.

This is tremendously effective, because it costs them so little to change direction (compared with existing "entrenched" companies). I'd argue that it's in their best interests to sit, wait, and then act once the dust settles.

It's also why they don't really have a lot of members in their fan club, but that's beside the point.