<![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> The customers that Microsoft will attract will be exactly the ones that retailers don't want, the cheapskates, the ones who will do anything to save a few cents, in fact the very same customers who are causing eBay so many headaches.

Caligo

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Ah yes, the old game changer/paradigm shifter...paradigm. Easy to write, not so easy to define. And even harder to implement.

Oh, I know I'm in the Valley now when I've gotten to debating paradigm game changer theory.

Funny thing about these....things....you never know exactly what they are or precisely where and when they'll show up. If you did, everybody would be able to achieve them and there wouldn't be this massive disparity of incomes here.

The one thing I do know is that few people are paying much attention to what Yahoo is actually doing. There's little serious reporting on it (yes, I'm looking at you, Valleyragarinos) and analysis tends to boil down to a perfunctory and sarcastic dismissal (ditto) that closely follows The Street. Sloppy journalism. Slopping thinking.

bloggerman

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> @smkr4: If MS wants to be a bigger part of the internet, it seems like they should create individually branded spin-off companies that are wholly owned instead of trying to make them subsist within the existing corporate bureaucracy.

Like FileMaker?

CaliforniaCajun

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> @smkr4: I gotta eg me some of the Kleenex beer. Hops make my nose run.

CaliforniaCajun

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> @Bdobbs: No one will be offended if you "accuse" them of speaking in Jewish. He's just ignorant, don't make this more than it is.

Dror Poleg

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> how come Udi Manber says they made a search in a language called "Filipino" ? The language is called Tagalog. We'd never accuse you of speaking in Jewish, Udi... that would be Naz"i of us.

Bdobbs

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Practice Effect is not my favorite Brin (*cough* Startide Rising *cough*), but it was a cool analogy.

You know you always had a sense that Microsoft's products were at least semi-sucky and buggy and just a bit off. But there wasn't a lot of choice and it at least worked and was fairly complete and affordable... and then you were locked in.

On the web you're not very locked in, and you pay basically nothing to use it, so users will abandon sites that are semi-sucky and buggy and just a bit off for ones that aren't, and Microsoft can't compete on price, unless they go to negative pricing, which they say they're doing.

So Microsoft hires an ad agency to get more hip but doesn't fix their broken search. That is fiddling while Rome burns. Makes me suspect they're forgotten how to write software. People will look back to this area and compare what's happening with Apple and Microsoft to GM eating Ford's lunch when they started offering nicer, more expensive cars. People are more prosperous today and computers are cheaper and for more and more people it's worth it to spend a few hundred extra dollars to get something that's better.

deathbychichi

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> @bloggerman: It isn't that Google is invincible, it's just that when you are going against a monopoly you have to bring about a game-changer/paradigm shifter. Microsoft and Yahoo bring none of these to the table when it comes to search and Microsoft's latest offering is merely a gimmick. It doesn't improve upon search or make people use search in a different way.

It's nothing more than a carrot on a stick.

Scrivs

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> What do you think Google does? Google also pays FireFox, Adobe, Realnetwork, Dell etc money for installing Google Toolbar with download of their products and Dell computers. They are also buys customers. Their service is good but yahoo and live search are no less. Google has mind share and market share but they pay to maintain as well. Its all business, google is no charity.

chaluputra

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Ah, yes Owen. Google rules all, will rule all, and will never ever ever ever ever be challenged. Like IBM. Ma Bell. And the Corleone family.

Invincible all. Always has been. Always will be. Just like Microsoft.

Might as well give up now. No hope. Never was. Never will be.

Somebody from Google being modest? Pfffwwww....Riiiigghhtt .... And Schmidty's a happily married and always faithful.

bloggerman

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Slow and glitchy wins the race. I mean steady. Steady!

WagCurious

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> yo son I gotta join in givin you the props on this post.

microsoft can't be like the COBOL dude thinkin he gonna learn flex - he never gonna compete with the kids and their meth and stuff. Gotta do something else or you'll die, or go work at Wal-Mart, one of those.

BobDope

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Wow! This dude can write!

Agree with your premise that search as currently cast is not the ultimate conclusion of human-computer interaction; fashioning a proper search query is *work,* and evaluating the presented results is yet more work. The company/organization/individual that succeeds in making these tasks seem effortless will be the next disruptor.

marcsiry

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Well said. What I really don't understand about Microsoft -- and many tech companies really -- is why they always try to launch new services/products under the same corporate umbrella. If MS wants to be a bigger part of the internet, it seems like they should create individually branded spin-off companies that are wholly owned instead of trying to make them subsist within the existing corporate bureaucracy. In particular because of branding -- I just don't understand the whole "Windows Live" thing. It's like ... Miller Lite Peanut Butter, or Kleenex Beer. Surely the whole Toyota v. Lexus idea hasn't totally passed the tech industry over.

Buying Yahoo is at least smart from that perspective ... although I am dubious that it will not lead to the peanut butter being spread over an even larger surface area.

smkr4

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> nice post owen

janon999

]]> <![CDATA[Microsoft's desperate search]]> Still, this can really undercut GOOG margins and cash cow.

ScalaWag

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