Google, Microsoft & Impending Turf Wars

Red Herring writes that Google should continue to play down any rivalry with Microsoft, especially if it has any ambitions to tread onto the Redmond giant’s office software turf, warned former executives from Netscape.It quotes former Novell executives,"By consistently saying that google is not competing with Microsoft, it has allowed them to remain under the radar". Google could incur Microsoft’s wrath if it tries to compete with Microsoft for cash cows like Microsoft Office or operating system software. While it is true that every company loses its invincibility at some point, companies need to concentrate on business fundamentals: sound forecasts, receivables management, and tighter control of pricing in its sales efforts. The two companies are competing for key personnel, with Microsoft recently suing Google for luring away a Microsoft exec in China. However, as Google becomes a behemoth in its own right, it’s likely the two will compete for more than executive star power.

My Take : I do not agree with this view – Google is no pushover – even for Microsoft. Microsoft’s strength has been typically weak or less focused competitors that it had to compete with. Microsoft was able to crush competition partly due to its dominance of desktop( give its due – worked hard than most others and execution was great), but Google has a stranglehold on the Internet. In every competition in the internet world space between Microsoft & Google - it has always been a victory for Google. Microsoft itself has suffered many setbacks,losing the API war and concern about its future has almost become a street talk, with the giant tough challenges ahead. With bandwidth creating pressures on Microsoft, pushing things towards a hosted model (here Google clearly has lot more expertise – look at the success of the Google Adsense program) – there had been even speculation about Microsoft looking at breakup as an option. Google is consistently performing so well, it has to just execute – angering microsoft or not. Microsoft itself has a tough future ahead – google needs to go beyond new announcement and statement of intents as shown by its vision - It is time that Google gets more forthcoming about its future plans(Microsft scores better here)and announce a clearer roadmap that it wants to pursue lets say in the next three –to-five years. It has achieved a stature in the ecosystem that demands that it is far more communicative about its future plans.