ParisLemon » Microsoft Building Top-Secret Next-Gen Search Engine in Google’s Backyard

Microsoft Building Top-Secret Next-Gen Search Engine in Google’s Backyard

TechCrunch is reporting that Microsoft has gathered a team of super-awesome developers in Mountain View, CA to start building a top-secret next-gen search engine.

Mountain View, home of Microsoft’s Silicon Valley operations, also happen to house a certain company by the name of Google – and you know that is just who they are shooting for with this new project.

What I want to know is why Microsoft not only thinks it’s smart to try and fight battles on every single front in the industry – but to launch major offensives on battles they almost for sure cannot win? I think they would be much better served both performance-wise and perception-wise (with the public at least) if they simply stuck to focusing on a few major projects and made sure they made those as good as possible.

Right now Microsoft is actively fighting Apple in the digital music player realm, Sony and Nintendo in the video game console realm, Adobe in the Flash realm, Firefox in the web browser realm, Apache in the server realm, a bunch of companies in the computer peripheral realm, Linux (and Apple) in the Operating System realm, Yahoo and Google in the email realm, Google in the online advertising realm, Google yet again in the Office suite realm (though to be fair, Google brought that fight to them), and probably at least a half-dozen others that I’m just not thinking of.

Just think if Microsoft put their vast resources into just a few major projects instead of assembling a new team every time someone creates something popular and innovative in the tech world. Fighting a major war on multiple fronts didn’t work for the Germans and it won’t work for Microsoft – Google Search is the dead of Russian winter as far as this battle is concerned.

On a side note, I love that one of the only confirmations Mike Arrington could pull on the subject was that the new search engine will be “very cool”.

[photo by flickr user Domain Barnyard]

Post by MG Siegler on 06/04/07
Comments

Anonymous

Microsoft has a huge pile of money. So they can either save this money in the bank and earn interest, or they can try to capture new markets. Which would you do? If you answered save the money, you have probably provided the answer of why you are not a huge internet company.

For Microsoft to go, they need to capture new markets, saying anything else is just silly. They have huge piles of cash and income, so they can afford to take a longer view (as they have done with the xbox, zune, etc...) Saying they aren't smart enough, really just makes you look like an idiot.

You are also clueless when you say that Microsoft are fighting google/yahoo in the email realm, firefox in the browser realm, apple in the os realm etc... Microsoft owned this realm, they are being attacked by other companies. What do you suggest they do, give up as soon as another company enter their space. Stop producing OS, hotmail, office, ie? You are truly and idiot.

MG Siegler

Wow, you are mad huh?

Anyways - no I am not suggesting Microsoft sit on their money, they already sit on enough money which is how they buy aQuantive for $6 billion - in cash. I'm suggesting they take the money they put into these ventures like yes, the Zune and instead put it into improving their current products.

I love the Xbox, written about it many times, but it is in my eyes the only product they've made where they've come in late and made a product that was better than the current king - though that is very much debatable as well. It has a lot to do with the games, and Microsoft bought Bungie, bought Rare, was able to get Rockstar to drop its exclusivity with Sony for GTA games...

I'll give you the email point, MS was there early, but come on, the browser?! I obviously didn't even mention Netscape the company Microsoft bum-rushed by throwing out the free IE, and then included it as a central part of their already ubiquitous operating system while in the process throwing aside web-standards so as to ensure it would be difficult for people to ever switch back to anything else (which is happening anyway with Firefox).

It was just a thought, obviously Microsoft doesn't have to/won't listen to it, but you seem very upset that I would say such things and for that I'm sorry. Contrary to what it may seem by my writing, I don't absolutely hate Microsoft (see my post gushing about Surface Computing, a field which they are hey surprise, surprise, one of the first to and not a late entrant), I just wish they would make more innovative products rather then trying to come to an already established field and saturate with a just so-so product.

Hemphill81

Agree with you completely. They are overextending their selves to a point where they do a little bit of a push in a market completely dominated by another. Like the angry guy said though Microsoft didn't choose all these battles, but the battles they did pick (online advertising) seem to drag them away from what they need to be focusing on. They need to be paying more attention to the OS side of the house before they lose their dominance in what built their house of cards. When people realize they don't have a to pay for an OS to do simple task, or that they can have something so much more simple they will have a real problem on their hands.