Google vs. Microsoft (VC Style)

In the course of doing the voodoo that VCs do,  I’ve started to ask a number of questions of new companies in order to get a “man on street” view of this or that battle, this or that standard, and other things that might (or might not) matter to start up companies.

One question I’ve been asking:  What do you think of the Microsoft vs. Google battles, both today and ones to come?

Obviously, this is fairly opened ended. It was designed that way to see what pops into people’s heads first as well as not leading people toward any specific answer.

First observation: A ton of people do not read the web site of the firms they go visit. I think I’m making a reasonable conclusion when people come by, get the question above and lead off with “All Microsoft people are amazing jerks and I’ve yet to ever meet…” Happened 4 times recently.

Folks, just go with “Even tho I/We know you used to work there…” and then dump away.  Fake like you did some VC homework.

Second observation:  Google’s plan of just giving away as much as possible and sharing revenue with everybody on everything is a dead simple message that everybody just gets. Regardless how evil or not you think Google is or isn’t, the message that developers are hearing is this: Use our stuff and let’s make money together. 

Head on over to the Head Lemur’s place where he pointed out some pretty interesting language in Google’s licensing with respect to content.  Some people, like Alan, will hit the “you’ve been warned” button but the larger message: Nobody appears, today, to care.

For example, I’m seeing all kinds of applications that use various mapping features, all with Google Maps, none with Virtual Earth.  Licensing restrictions was the number one issue mentioned, the second being the richness of the API set.  Think about that for a second.  Even if you believe Virtual Earth is better or has better, the licensing is what gets mentioned, not the technology.

Third observation: Good vs. Evil is an overrated point.  Most of the developers I spoke to said, they believe for a fact that Google is just as “greedy” as Microsoft only Google appears, today, willing to share more of the pie then Microsoft.

Fourth observation: Let the ‘war’ continue. Most would love it if Microsoft and Google went at it for the next ten years because, in the end, features, functionality and opportunities, come out of all this.

Fifth observation: Robert Scoble gets mentioned often among developers. No single Google Blogger is called out by name at least with any measurable consistency. I’m not sure if this is a good thing/bad thing or anything, just interesting. Actually, the other thing to note on the people side is that within various specialties, like maps, database, code, etc, virtually everybody mentioned a specific blog they read or found useful that specifically related to the product/service they were using.  To you, I know, duh, but if you think back a short while, this wasn’t the case. It’s an interesting trend.

Sixth observation: While nobody wants to ship 50lb bags of dog food for free in return for advertising, the whole notion of free whatever making money by highly targeted advertising seems to be taking on a bit of bubble 1.0, make it up in volume, kinda hype. Worth watching because at a certain point, somewhere, advertising can’t cover it all. At least I don’t think so, could be wrong.

Thankfully, more and more start ups are just showing up with a plan to solve a problem, give great service, and grow a business versus trying to ride the dot net, or web 2.0, or any other hype wave.

In the end, for me, that’s all that matters.

Comments

[Robert Scoble]

You are SSSSOOOOOO right on! Are you listening in?

[Matt]

Your second and third observations contradict one another...at least to anyone who groks what most of the Google-loving community means when they say "evil". (We have nothing whatsoever against "greed" in the sense of steering massive quantities of money into the coffers of companies that provide things that the market wants. We have a VERY GREAT DEAL against licensing terms which allow the provider of an underlying service to cherry-pick the most commercially viable applications other people build on top of that service, and then steal them.)

"Good vs evil" is _about_ the fact that folks feel confident that they can make whatever amount of money their markets are willing to give them, if they do it in the Google space...but if they work in the Microsoft space they know they'll only remain profitable as long as they're too small for Microsoft to expend the attention and resources necessary to kill them.

I do agree, though, about the increasing (and joyous) popularity of those quaint old-fashioned notions about making money by building stuff people want to pay for, instead of simply riding the wave of a trend and hoping not to be the first surfer to run out of greater-fools.

[DonDodge]

Rick, great observations. Microsoft and Google are destined to compete for the hearts and minds of developers and users. I don't think it will be a head to head battle for a while since MS and Google approach the market very differently.

I am reminded of a quote "In a fight between a grizzly bear and an alligator, the terrain determines the winner", meaning that each company has its strength and position in the market. The company that crosses over to fight on the others turf is likely to lose.

Which company do you think will leave its powerbase to engage in battle on the others turf?

Don Dodge

[Omer Qureshi]

I think that entire notion and hype of Google vs. Microsoft is a bit overrated, it’s like Yankees going at Red Sox, eventually people and analyst will get over it and realize that like Yankees Microsoft just has better players and although that does not guarantee victory in every single world series but it does allow them to perform consistency better than others including Red Sox or for that matter Google….

I think that these firms competing will definitely be good for the industry and amazing for the consumers. The bottom-line Google only makes revenue from selling ads and although the pie is getting bigger it can’t continue to grow with the same pace and thus Google might be inducted in the hall of fame as Novell. Netscape and Red Hat…