Microsoft fixes date for desktop search tool

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Here's why (long msg)

> Why so bleak?

The short answer is: history. The graphical browser represented a user experience paradigm shift that Microsoft found it had to control, or become irrelevant. A similar thing is happening with web and desktop search.

The longer answer is below.

When the graphical browser began to fundamentally change the user experience, Microsoft saw it as a threat to its central role in defining how users view computing. The new experience was shaped by Mosaic and its developers, who went on to build the company Netscape Communications. MS initially charged that web surfing was a throw-back to time-sharing. (From the server perspective, that is correct.) When they finally accepted that a paradigm shift was in progress, they mounted a campaign to make sure they control it. The effort so emasculated Netscape's revenue stream and that they could no longer sustain competitive engineering effort. Thus, the company which gave us secure socket layer and web commerce, JavaScript, tables and frames, et cetera bit the dust.

One wonders if Netscape knew it would not survive, and therefore prepared its final legacy. Most other dying companies would have held on to their assets in hopes of recouping a miniscule amount of shareholder value. Instead, Netscape gave it away. If it had not done so, there would be no Netscape browser today, no Apple Safari, no Firefox.

> ..Which one will survive?...
> There's plenty of markets that exist with > 1 player.
> Differentiate the product taking advantage of your particular strengths might give you an edge.

Under other circumstances, that might be true. But I believe this is a paradigm shift that Microsoft does not take lightly.

> ..MS Desktop Search will be bundled...
>
> In Longhorn it'll actually be part of the OS. That's the direction they're taking, IE as well, right or wrong who knows.

Exactly. If Longhorn places it prominently on the desktop, and it takes advantage of undocumented proprietary interfaces, there will be no reason to download a separate tool. Without its current deluge of traffic, Google's revenue stream will dwindle.

> ..Another great entrepreneurial computer science experiment will bite the dust....
>
> If the result is a powerful user friendly super smart search and sort application then the experiment worked.
> There might even be some new experiments to do.

History shows that bundling and marketing have more impact than tool quality.

> Google appear more optimistic than your good self in making some money off it.

Publicly, that is true. But if you read news from a year ago, they knew that Microsoft was taking notice and was going to take aim. They are in the same valley where Netscape rose and fell. In fact, they are about five miles away from the former Netscape buildings. I wouldn't say that Google is pessimistic, but they know the stakes.

[For the record, I am not a current or former employee of Netscape or Google. But I've known a few.]

Posted by: asky   Posted on: 10/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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