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Google vs. Microsoft
Oh boy. Here we go.
Google and Sun have partnered up to provide Open Office software over the web. You may as well walk up, pull off your glove, and swat Microsoft in the face. Microsoft’s software sales are its lifeblood, pulling in $11 billion a year, and threatening to take market share from Microsoft’s flagship products is a bold move.
Sources: ABC News and The Courier Mail (Note: the article is no longer posted on The Courier Mail).
Building Up Strength
Google is very smart. It knows what has happened to other rivals of Microsoft. Apple. Novell. WordPerfect. Netscape. Oracle. Every one of them has been pushed around by the bully of the playground. Google isn’t going into a fight like this unprepared. It’s been building up every kind of technology and innovation it can for several years. David has been spending some time in the weight room before he faces Goliath. You’ll notice that most of Google’s innovations are web based. Read more about Google’s preparation here: Google Prepares for Battle.
Arranging the Pieces
Like in a game of chess, Google has been arranging the pieces of this conflict very carefully. I believe it is going to go for broke—shifting applications, data storage and retrieval, everything, to the web. Richard MacManus of ZDNet agrees with me. There will only be standards-based interface tools—browsers, Java, API’s, just barely enough to allow your computer or other device to boot up and access the web where all the data and nameuseful services will be located. Google is going for far more than office apps—it’s going for every application and all data, using a browser and OS independent model to take down Microsoft.
Google’s Master Plan:
- Google Search: collect, sort, and retrieve all of the world’s information.
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Google Desktop: currently you can sort and search through what’s on your computer. It’s a handy tool to have, and Google wants it installed on as many machines as possible—hence the distribution partnership with Sun’s Java. Google will eventually use it to help you pull all of your data onto the web.
You will want your data on the web because you will have Internet devices that will be able to access it from just about anywhere. You also skip out on having to have a hard drive or other large storage media in all your devices. You only need one place to store your data, and Google’s betting it’s on the web.
- Gmail: with such great searching and sorting functionality, this may simply be the beginning of a personal data storage capability. There’s a reason they offer 2.5 gigs and counting of storage. Gmail may be renamed Gdata.
- Google Earth: begin collecting and becoming the standard for all geographically based information, which will become important because of Google Wireless.
- Google Wireless: after a test run in San Francisco, Google will roll out a nation-(and even world-)wide wireless ISP to be the infrastructure for supporting web-based applications, accessing personal data through Gdata (formerly called Gmail), and using the geographical information from Google Earth. Your mobile device(s) (cell phones may simply continue to absorb functionality and reduce the number of devices you need to carry) will access your data, link you to web applications, and provide you with context- and location-specific services, assistance, and advertising.
Wow.
Talk about a tour de force! Google is going to take on Microsoft, and with a plan like this, I believe they have the best chance anyone has ever had of taking down our modern Goliath. Microsoft certainly won’t go down without a fight, and it may have a few tricks up its sleeves, but in the end it won’t really matter too much who wins—the consumer can only benefit from healthy competition. Although I hope that Google wins because they seem to treat people better and compete in a moral manner.
This will be fun to watch!
on February 8th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Googlezon! Googlezon! Googlezon!
on February 23rd, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Ah yes, but power corrupts and absolute power, well - you catch my drift.
on October 12th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
[…] Actually, the question about whether Google will create a Google Office is nearly moot—Google has been moving in the Office direction for at least a year and Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a major step in that direction. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is an integrated spreadsheet and word processor solution. Google also offers email, calendaring, and templated (PowerPoint-esque) Google Pages. Google has a few steps left to bring these services up to full horsepower, and then integrating them and managing users’ data is all (!) that’s left. Google could have an online office suite in a year. […]
on November 2nd, 2006 at 5:59 am
What can Microsoft do to hurt Google. I’m surprised, coming from MS, that you don’t acknowledge the obvious: 95% of Google’s customers come to them via Windows. By making search integrated into the Vista OS, defaulting to Live.com and bypassing the browser, MS — just by providing search results that are “good enough” for most customers — can put a big dent in Google’s revenue. Could be why Google is trying so desperately to diversify their product offerings beyond browser-based search.
People make such a big deal about Google Office taking aim at Microsoft’s major source of income, while never acknowledging just how vulnerable Google’s single source of income is.The concept of storing my sensitive excel data in the web scares me. The google docs which they have given so much hype is not better than an average HTML Editor.
on November 2nd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
CoolDude,
I’m not sure exactly what you meant by “coming from MS”—I don’t and haven’t worked at Microsoft. Did you mean “coming from the MS (Marriott School)”?
You do make a relevant point about a very clever tactic that Microsoft can use against Google. It’s the same tactic that MS used against most of its other rivals—rely on its stranglehold on the operating system market. This will work only so long as operating systems are relevant.
When would an operating system become irrelevant!?!?
As soon as applications are pulled off your PC. It doesn’t matter where you store your data, it matters where you use your data. When you use your cell phone or other devices to manipulate or access data, when you are working using applications hosted online (even if your data is stored locally), when your devices take care of things behind the scenes (think smart appliances, cars, etc.), the operating system becomes irrelevant and the argument shifts back to who provides the best services and who has their search box embedded in the most places. That’s why Google is partnering, often for free, with anyone who will allow them to place a search box on their site or in their app.
As you can see, there are ways around the OS chokehold, even if the browser gets bypassed. I wonder if the shift away from OS dependence is going to happen soon enough for Google. I wonder if it’s already too late for Microsoft. It is certainly a battle that is interesting to watch and ultimately good for consumers (we get to choose the best of the different solutions).
on August 6th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[…] Google is using shock and awe—their last few moves have been so aggressive and so impressive as to make my earlier vision of Google’s plan seem simple and closed-minded. […]