Microsoft Is to Google as IBM Was to Microsoft

While looking at some of the non-U.S. sites I frequently visit (especially on U.S. holidays), I came upon a story down under, in ITWire, about the upcoming (this week?) launch of Kumo.

Kumo is the new Microsoft effort from Microsoft to get a firm grip (grope?) on search. Everyone talks about it, and the majority marvel that Microsoft even bothers. I tend to be in that crowd.

The article speaks about the futility of the Microsoft effort, and the past failed attempts by Microsoft to gain some traction in the search business.  The article fails to mention that Microsoft tried bribing the public, but that also did not work.

Maybe the money offers weren’t as free in the land down under.

Since Google has the majority of search, with Yahoo having the largest minority, it would seem that Microsoft should go after Yahoo with all the gusto of its first efforts, but instead it is spending a rumored $100 million to get its own search going. Cheaper than a purchase of  Yahoo, yes, but is it money down the toilet?

Naturally Microsoft is a massively well resourced company - financially better resourced than Google. However, no amount of money can help it take down Google.

If you need an analogy, think about how the vastly better resourced IBM tried to take down the relative upstart Microsoft between the mid-1980s up until the launch of Windows 95 when the Big Blue finally realised it had lost the battle and gave up.

The fact was that Microsoft understood the desktop market much better than IBM and the big vertically integrated hardware and software company was powerless.

Now Microsoft is in a similar situation to the 1980s IBM. It understands how to make money from the desktop but it doesn’t have a clue how to make money in the online space.

Google has all the best talent around the world working on its search related products. Microsoft has a division in Redmond and some new recruits from Yahoo.

New recruits or not, I would not have spent efforts on this sort of time-waster. Google has the lion’s share, Yahoo is only being used by a very loyal minority (so they will remain loyal should MS come up with something great, as Google is better now, yet they stay with Yahoo), and Wolfram Alpha has shown it is on the rise.

Not the best of timing, or show of cost-effective use of resources.

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