I find this tidbit, gleaned from coverage of SES, fascinating. Apparently Bill Gates is still engaged at Microsoft, at least on one issue: Search. From a piece covering the integration of Powerset into Microsoft’s search index:
However the news isn’t all bleak, as Microsoft believes strongly in the potential advantages provided by Powerset. And they’ve got another ally, too: Bill Gate[s]. Scott Prevost, Powerset’s general manager, was quoted as saying that “Bill has definitely not retired for us”. Gates, who has stepped down from day to day operations, has said that he planned to continue to work on search.
I wonder why this is so. Is it simply that Gates hates losing to the Google duo? Is it a legacy thing?
I can envision this as a personal quest for Gates. Legacy? Sure, why not. Did you think it would be easy for a hard-working and brilliant mind to just lay to rest? One has to have goals, a reason to keep going. I’m sure he has the utmost respect for Google– but would love nothing more than to kick their ass!
It is the realization that this would be his first high profile failure AFTER having a head start of years AND bragging about MSN’s fateful success.
In the meantime, he hasn’t even beaten Yahoo. If MSN was not the default search for IE, the percentage would be even lower
He’ll loose anyway, you know =)