Op-Ed Contributor Chrome vs. Bing vs. You and Me By ROBERT X. CRINGELY The New York Times July 13, 2009
THE battle between Microsoft and Google entered a new phase last week with the announcement of Google's Chrome Operating System - a direct attack on Microsoft Windows. This isn't the first salvo in a war that has already seen Google lob its Chrome Web browser against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Google pit its Android smart-phone operating system against Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and Microsoft, in turn, aim its new search technology, Bing, against Google's very heart - the Google search engine. This is all heady stuff and good for lots of press, but in the end none of this is likely to make a real difference for either company or, indeed, for consumers. It's just noise - a form of mutually assured destruction intended to keep each company in check. Microsoft makes most of its money from two products, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Nearly everything else it makes loses money, sometimes deliberately. Google makes most of its money from selling Internet ads next to search results. Nearly everything else it does loses money, too. Neither company really cares because both make so much from their core products that it simply doesn't matter. But companies, like people, strive and dream and in this case both dream, at least sometimes, of destroying the other. Only they can't - or won't - do it in the end, because it is against the interests of either company to do so. The vast majority of Google searches are, of course, done on PCs running Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. It is not in Google's real interest to displace these products, which have facilitated so much of its success. Chrome products are given away, so they bring in no revenue for Google, and they don't even provide a better search or advertising experience for their users, the company admits. So why does Google even bother? To keep Microsoft on its toes. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13cringely.html *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
