Where the Business and IT Conversation Starts
Remember me
Sign In
Forgot your Password?
Home
Blogs
Forums
Executive Reports
Premium Insights
Sponsored Insights
My Executive Reports
Webcasts
Events
My Events
Register For An Event
Download Presentation Material
Check Your Event Seat
All Events
Surveys
Surveys
My Surveys
New Surveys
Flash Polls
My Polls
Download Summary Reports
Customer Service
IDC Circle Blogs
Jun09
18
Google, Microsoft address their shortcomings
Posted by:
Claus Mortensen
in
WebSpace x.0
@ 11:13 AM
Tags:
google
,
microsoft
,
search
,
web 2.0
Claus Mortensen
The last few weeks saw two announcements from two giants in the ITC industry: Google and Microsoft. In fact, within a day of each other, Google presented its concept of a Web-based communications platform called "Google Wave" and Microsoft followed suit by announcing the revamp and rebranding of its Live Search into "Bing".
So why do I say that these announcements are addressing the shortcomings of these companies? Well, as far as Microsoft goes, the answers are pretty straightforward. Live Search never really caught on as a search engine, and it has clearly been a strategic disadvantage for the company that it has not been able to rival the global search engine market shares of Google, Yahoo and regional shares of Baidu and others. Bing is clearly designed to change that. Not only has Microsoft changed the name and the design of the search interface - it is also supposedly a move towards a more semantic search engine that seeks to give answers to questions posed by the user rather than just providing a series of links as search results. The idea is not new. At the beginning of this year, Ask.com announced they would focus on this technology and Microsoft itself implemented limited semantic search functionality in its Live Search. And of course, Google has not been resting on its search laurels; the search giant claims to have already implemented semantic search in at least 37 different languages.
So will Bing be successful in addressing Microsoft's shortcomings? Only time can tell. Microsoft would probably be the first company to agree that it is easier said than done to get a real foothold in the Internet search market, but the launch of Bing certainly shows the company's dedication to this space.
Google's shortcomings are not in relation to Internet search, of course, and in fact, Google Wave has little or nothing to do with search. Wave is the company's vision of how people will and should be communicating in the future. It incorporates email, instant messaging, real-time transmissions of what is typed, multimedia integration, games integration, and others, in an interface that looks suspiciously like well... Facebook. And that is perhaps what is at the crux of it all. Even though it is touted as a new communications platform, it is perhaps really Google's way of addressing the company's major shortcoming: the lack of a social networking platform to rival those of Facebook, Friendster and others.
So will Wave succeed in addressing Google's shortcomings? Again, only time can tell. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that social network services are encroaching fast on "traditional" email and instant messaging services. And they are fast becoming a platform of choice for sharing multimedia as well. So undoubtedly, Google is seeing the strategic importance of hitting back and coming up with viable alternatives to "traditional" social networking.
Currently rated 2.6 by 7 people
Currently 2.571429/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5
Permalink
| Trackback |
Comments (0)
| 
Comments RSS
| 
Subscribe to:
This Post
|
This Blog
|
All IDC Circle Blogs (Feedburner)
|
Email to Friend
Search
Search
Include comments in search
IDC Circle Blogs
A.F.S. (28)
Cloud Survey (1)
Cyber Security Poll (1)
Enterprise Networking (1)
GovSpace (9)
Green IT (3)
Health Bytes (7)
IDC Enterprise Mobility Survey (1)
MI Blog (14)
Personal Tech (4)
Services (3)
Software @ Your Service (14)
The Inner Circle (3)
WebSpace x.0 (3)
Tag Cloud
accountability
accr
afs congress
ahnlab
asia/pacific
australia
automation
automotive
bancassurance
banking
banks
big data
big data/analytics
business analytics
business applications
business strategy
byod
channel program
china
chinese insurers
circ
cisco
cius
cloud
cloud computing
compliance
concerns
congress
consumerization
cooling
customer care
datacenter
datacenters
devices
distribution
eco-friendly
economic crisis
economic stimulus
ehr
engineering
environmental sustainability
environmentally sustainable banking
f5
facebook
financial services
google
government
green banking
green financial offerings
green it
health
healthcare
healthcare reforms
hong kong
ibm
identity
india
information security
innovation
insurance
insurer
investment
it governance
it priorities
it security
it services
it support
limra
loma
managed services
manufacturers
manufacturing
manufacturing demand supply-chain
microsoft
mobile apps
mobility
nano
online aggregator
operational risk
patient centricity
pcs
plm
predictions
public policy
risk management
risk solution vendors
search
search engine
security
security survey
simulation
social
social media
strategic issues conference
strategies
strategy
supply chain
supply-chain
survey
tablets
transparency
vendor management
videoconference
video-conference
virtualization
web 2.0
websense
windows 7
windows 8
windows rt
Month List
2013
April (2)
March (1)
2012
November (1)
September (3)
July (2)
June (3)
April (2)
March (5)
February (2)
2011
November (2)
October (4)
September (2)
August (2)
July (2)
June (7)
May (1)
April (1)
March (2)
February (2)
January (3)
2010
November (3)
October (2)
September (1)
August (3)
July (1)
June (3)
May (2)
April (1)
February (3)
2009
November (1)
October (2)
September (1)
August (2)
July (2)
June (4)
May (6)
April (7)
Recent Comments
The Changing Times of Chinese Manufacturing
(20)
wrote: It is interesting to read on the Straits Times tod…
[More]
Comment RSS
Recent Posts
Summary of Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) IT Security Predictions for 2013
Comments: 0
Rating: 2.3 / 18
Parallels unveiled APS 2.0 with single sign-on
Comments: 0
Rating: 5 / 4
CRO Survey: Investment Considerations and Top Enterprise Risk Initiatives: What's in Store for 2013?
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.7 / 32
Growing Local Regulatory Compliance in Asia-Pacific
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.7 / 175
Insurance Survey: What are their Strategies, Trends and Investment Priorities?
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.5 / 154
Cloud Survey
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.6 / 26
Great success at the 5th Annual Asian Insurance Congress 2012
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.5 / 31
Distribution of Insurance in the Disruptive Era
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.5 / 20
IBM Study: Changing Role of CISO, from Technical Officers to Business Strategy Leaders
Comments: 0
Rating: 2.5 / 50
Cyber Security Poll
Comments: 0
Rating: 1.4 / 15
Calendar
<<
May 2013
>>
Mo
Tu
We
Th
Fr
Sa
Su
29
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9