The war between Google and Microsoft
Till a couple of years back, Microsoft was the uncrowned king of software. They did not allow even a hint of competition. I know of so many companies which simply went under because of Microsoft onslaught. But things started changing slowly. Linux an open source operating system came into the horizon and spoilt the Microsoft party for internet servers. Many other open source programs became prominent threatening the supremacy of Microsoft. And then Google came along and things changed forever.
The two giants left in the field are Google and Microsoft. Microsoft never believed (till recently) that search engine can become such a big money spinner. Today seventy percent of the search market belongs to Google whereas MSN and live search have hardly a few percentage points. Actually, it is not search which is attractive to Microsoft, it is the advertisement revenue.
Microsoft’s attempt to trying to enter search through Bing is therefore not surprising. As I wrote in the last post, Bing is supposedly a decision engine and not a search engine. What is the subtle difference? We will have to wait and watch the actual working of Bing. Frankly, it better be different, whatever name you call it by. Why don’t I say good instead of different? Good can only mean an improvement on Google’s existing search engine. And that’s not good enough. What I would like to see is intelligent extraction of information from search words. Something like the semantic web. I will go as far as to say that Bing has to be dramatically different from Google if Microsoft wants people to Bing instead of Google.
What about Google? Google has actually grown away or shall I say beyond search engine. Given that it is the king of search, its story doesn’t end there. They have slowly moved into the Microsoft stronghold of Office space. Google Docs is only a forerunner of bigger things to come. By offering the entire Office suite online with enhanced features and that too free, Google has insidiously broken into the Microsoft space. Google Docs even goes one better by offering collaborative tools to its users. This has been a big blow to Microsoft.
Now Google has gone and done it again. It has announced its new project called Wave. What is Wave? I really haven’t used Wave and nor has anyone for that matter. From what I gather it is a email client with IM features. But that not all. It is a rich mixture of collaboration, documentation, and real-time messaging. It has the potential and breadth to encompass the entire Office suite as well as provide collaborative tools which are so popular with Google Docs. With Wave Google is attempting a coup of sorts by overthrowing the supremacy of Office.
Some discussions on the internet have pointed to a resemblance with Outlook. According to the source Google developers dismissed this comparison and called Wave far more complex and wider in breadth.
What does it all mean? What is obvious is that Microsoft is moving rapidly into the search space with Bing whereas Google is trying to overthrow the monopoly of Microsoft in the document space. It looks like both want to look like the other. The primary difference is that Google products are open source and developers can create complex and vibrant software with it. On the other hand Microsoft is proprietary and guards its source code zealously. This means a dead end for developers. Here again, Microsoft seems to be adapting to the new culture, that of open source and collaboration. But their focus is making money right from the word go whereas Google is a technology company which looks at money as a byproduct of its creativity. In fact, when Google launched its search engine, its founders did not have a monetizing plan.
I am discussing both Bing and Wave in such detail because it means a sea change in the way SEO’s think and do things. As I had mentioned in my earlier post, we may have to relook at our fanatic attraction for keywords. Social media tools would make an entry in a big way and may have a greater impact on search engine ranking. We will have to closely monitor both Bing and wave to take proactive measures. After all we don’t want our efforts at SEO going waste in a few months time.
Google on its part may or may not drastically modify their search engine algorithm. Why fiddle with something which is working so well? But then you can never say. I foresee many more concepts and ideas emerging in the SEO space. These ideas are likely to be so radical that they change the rules of the game altogether. I smell a whiff of artificial intelligence, expert systems, decision support systems and a combination of these to move search into the next higher orbit. I am not even sure if Google will lead the way or some other unknown crusader. But I must confess that these are exciting times for the SEO guys. Or shall I say dangerous times?
