There’s new hype around. Google and Microsoft are taking it on.
There was a time, before Google became a big boy, when Microsoft was seen as the big bad wolf. Microsoft was the evil empire who threatened to kill or conquer ever other small competitor, just like it did with Netscape. In the early 2000’s, a new savior came. It was named… Google. It provided free quality services and it was customer-oriented. It was a godsend, but in time, it grew. The more it grew, the greedier it became. By 2005, Google was already starting to be frowned upon by some of its former followers. By providing the quality services it does (Google search, GMail, Picasa, Docs), it became an important player and in some way, it was doing the same thing Microsoft was doing back in the ‘90s.
Then, inthe late 2000’s, Google went enterprise, and the shit hit the fan. The rules changed. The players changed. Everything changed. That’s when Google started to be seen as ‘hostile’ by competitors, but most importantly, Microsoft. But Microsoft has experience in this league. Google does not. That’s why Microsoft has the edge here. In the enterprise league, the weapon of choice is not the customer, but the law-court. Google is still considering itself the “good old samaritan”, or at least, that’s what it wants us to believe, which is wrong. If it wants to survive the “enterprise league”, google has to change attitude and get dirty. Yes, like it’s written all over, Google must become the new Microsoft. You can’t get big if you’re not getting dirty. This is a rule of thumb.
Seeking $335,000 in unpaid advertising bills, Google Inc. filed suit against a small Internet site in Ohio in October. The complaint was so routine it was just two sentences long.
Google never expected the response it got. Last month, the small Internet site countered with a 24-page antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the search-engine giant of a litany of monopolistic abuses.
But what really caught Google’s attention was the Internet site’s legal counsel: It was (Cadwalader’s) Charles “Rick” Rule, long the chief outside counsel on competition issues for Google archrival Microsoft Corp.
This is where Microsoft’s experience comes in hand. Microsoft learned from its former law-suits and realised that an effective way of fighting is through “the enterprise client”. Is it working? Yes. Is google going to be able to adapt to this climate? It is, but it will have to drop the “virgin Mary” look and act as the big evil corporation it is.
Tags: Google, Microsoft