Microsoft, Yahoo and Google

All the three companies above have in their own way revolutionized the world of computers. There are more similarities between these software giants than what meets the eye.

Microsoft with its windows series of products has dominated worlds PC market for nearly two decades now. Virtually a whopping 95% of worlds PCs run on Microsoft OS. As you must have heard in the spider man movies, with great power comes great responsibility. But often power is misused. There are many instances of Microsoft bullying in world of software. Microsoft introduced its flagship product MS Office for its windows OS in 1989. At that time the dominant office suite included WordPerfect (Novell) and Lotus 123(IBM). As you might have guessed after introduction of MS Office both the applications were gone from the PC market in a few years. How did Microsoft achieve this within a short period??? Later anti trust litigations against Microsoft accused MS using what one calls as “UNDOCUMENTED API CALLS” in its Office products. While Novell and IBM where made to work with APIs provided by Microsoft to develop their office applications. MS was accused of hiding those system call interfaces which would perform the task faster and efficiently than documented API calls given to Novell and IBM thus giving unfair advantage to its products then its rivals. Another instance of dirty business tactics happened when internet revolution was burgeoning. As you might all know Netscape navigator was a very successful browser used during the mid 1990s. As usual Microsoft never likes people running non Microsoft products on Microsoft OS. It decided to ship its own browser the Internet Explorer (IE) along with its windows’98. IE was there right on the users desktop as users default browser, MS made IE free. No marks for guessing what happened in a few years time. Netscape went along the way WordPerfect and Lotus 123 did, into the software ruins. Instead of using giving the users the choice it just thrusted IE in the hands of users (IE did win the browser war cause it was as good as Netscape, So most users didn’t feel the need to switch over). The majority of criticism of MS has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "EMBRACE, EXTEND AND EXTINGUISH". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own incompatible version of the software or standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version. These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments filing lawsuits against Microsoft. In fact in 2002 Microsoft lost a lawsuit against it (for abusing its monopoly in PC OS to make users use its own product), the judge ordered the Microsoft to be split into two separate companies (People will remember what happened to BELL Corp in telecom sector when it had monopoly of the phone market, it was split into 7 companies to encourage competition). But the shrewd businessman Gates was, a handsome donation to George W Bush’s election Campaign ensured, MS escaped with appeal by just paying a huge compensation to Sun Microsystems and other Companies. Gates ensured his goose which laid the Golden Egg remained intact, the split was averted.

Everything changes with time other than change itself. Microsoft’s domination was soon going to be challenged in an unexpected way. Vinod Khosla, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems commented “NETWORK IS THE COMPUTER...!”(Even before the internet revolution had taken place, in 1980s). Boy was he right, internet forever changed the landscape of computers, and people always have this never ending quench to stay connected to one and another, internet met this needs. Yahoo was one of the initial pioneers of the web. It did come up with a very good web portal providing multitude of services at one point in its website. Had a pretty good search engine and mail going for it. As you find with most internet related companies , Yahoo soon became a software giant with hefty revenue in a short period of time. It would have dominated internet era if it weren’t for the two crucial mistakes. IBM deal to manufacture OS for its PCs made Gates a billionaire. (Irony is the deal was first offered to Digital Equipment Corp But its CEO saw no future for PCs in future and so rejected the deal). Coming back to the point, Yahoo where did it squander its Golden goose??? Well, it was opportunity to buy GOOGLE. The main forte for Yahoo over Microsoft was its Search Engine. Larry page and Sergey Brin were prepared to sell their product Google for a mere 1 million $ to Yahoo. David Yang, co-founder of yahoo rejected it (and he pretty much dug the grave yard for Yahoo, but helped lay the foundations of the new Software giant). The rejection was on the grounds Yahoo search was good enough, it didn’t need innovation. The second mistake it made was not going beyond its web portal concept. It failed to realize the Social networking wave which sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Orkut and Flicker brought about. It had opportunity to buy FaceBook for a billion dollars. It didn’t make the deal. Now Face book which started in 2004 is valued at 15 billion USD (Microsoft values Yahoo at 44.6 billion USD, just 3 times FaceBook capitalization though Yahoo was a pioneer in the world of web). Really being at the wrong end of the technology spectrum in Software costs you dearly. Yahoo was facing the rath of it.

Now for the product which nobody was prepared to pay a penny, but went onto give David Yang and Bill Gates many sleepless nights ‘GOOGLE’. Internet companies always seem to grow exponentially, Google was no exception to it. It which was started in 1998 and is valued at 140.30 billion USD today. Backed by great technologist, it revolutionized internet search. The difference between Yahoo and Google was ability to innovate. You can add to Google's list, many firsts the Code search, Scholar Search, Image Search, Google Maps, Book search. Microsoft was always was left behind in the internet rat race. Yahoo was pushed to number two. Now striking the right deals at the right time gives you the edge. Google did it with You Tube first, it bought it for 3 billion USD (Critics claimed that You Tube was nothing more than collection of copyright violated videos from movies and songs).But You Tube went to become a superb success. It was the first of its kind video sharing site, where people could post videos and broadcast themselves. Next Google bought DoubleClick an internet advertising Company which complemented Google Adsense. Google Adsense occupies 75 % of internet ads market. It seems to be everywhere. Yahoo did come up with its platform Panama to combat Adsense, but it was too little too late. Google web crawler spider searches the web for content, thanks to it Google pretty much as the entire internet in its databases. With the introduction Gtalk and Gmail it hit Yahoo where it hurts the most, internet ads. Google enjoys 75 % of search engine market. It has become monopoly in internet with nobody to challenge it, like what Microsoft was in PCs. The most embarrassing moment for Microsoft was when Google offered Google Desktop search; it searches the Windows PCs way faster than MS built in search for its Windows XP. A virtual slap on Microsoft’s face, Gates was not going to take it lying down. Microsoft came up with Windows Live Search to take on Google Search, but it had not cached no where the amount of pages Google had (Google had 8 billion pages when Live Search was launched), it just fizzled out into oblivion.

Gates tried his old tactics thrusting users with Windows Live Search by embedding it in Vista. But it failed this time because Windows Live Search was no where near the quality of Google search. Now it was Google’s turn to hit back. The first to take hit was IE MS’s browser which won over Netscape. Google made substantial contribution in money and resources to open source web browser, FireFox. Any lame user who used FireFox would tell you IE sucks when compared to FireFox. Microsoft’s hold on internet IE which it had built to interoperate with MS Office suite was loosing its hold. Then came the knock out blow which threatened MS Flagship product MS Office. Google Docs, Google’s version of Word processor and Spread sheets was made available in the internet. Now you need not have Office suite to work on your document or spreadsheet. Microsoft’s MS Office was paid, Google Docs was free. Microsoft worst fear of people using non – Microsoft products on Microsoft OS was becoming true. In a desperate move to get a hold on internet, MS has made a bid for Yahoo for take over. Though Yahoo discarded the deal saying it was undervalued, a merger seems to be on the cards to combat Google's domination of internet. Only time will tell whether two companies which failed to innovate at the right moment in the internet, can join hands to combat a successful one. History repeats itself, Monopoly never lasts along. Though Google has the upper hand in this war for internet, there will be a time soon where Google have to face its challenge like Microsoft and Yahoo are facing it from Google..!!!!

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