Between the lines of Microsoft’s decision to tweak Vista and Google’s complaint to the DOJ lies the seeds for a battle to supply corporate users with search technology.
Google clearly won’t back down from a fight, but the company would rather have it be a fair one and that is what it will likely get after Microsoft’s decision to tweak Vista’s desktop search choices, experts say.
“There is definitely self interest in the position that Google is taking in trying to prevent what it perceives is an unfair advantage [for Microsoft] with Vista,” says Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm. “It is obvious they are not [challenging Microsoft] out of a general belief in the consent decree.”
Last week, Google’s filing of an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the Department of Justice (DOJ) became public and contained concerns that Microsoft Vista’s desktop search violated the consent decree from the 2002 DOJ antitrust ruling against the software giant. Wednesday, Microsoft agreed to make changes to Vista.
The events clearly show the search battle is in full flight.
“I think Microsoft made this decision partly for legal reasons and partly because it had a clear view of reality, which is Google’s concern was correct in that multiple search indexes could slow the system down,” says Guy Creese, an analyst with the Burton Group. “But I think Microsoft is confident that it has the best product to win.”
Others say Google’s concern with Vista’s search feature is about ensuring the viability of its corporate desktop strategy.
“The desktop [search] tool gives them a very visible presence on the desktop, it’s very useful, and it fits nicely into their broader strategy around improving individual worker’s choice of productivity tools and ease of use of those tools,” says Matt Brown, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Vista’s embedded search capability certainly hurts part of this strategy.”
Wednesday, both Microsoft and IBM/Lotus said at the Enterprise 2.0 conference they are feeling heat from Google’s enterprise strategy, particularly Google Apps, a collection of Web-based productivity applications.
And Brown says Microsoft’s decision to tweak Vista has as much to do with positioning for a fight and it does with the consent decree.
“Microsoft made this decision for two reasons,” he says. “One, Microsoft certainly wants to compete with Google, but they don’t want another PR conundrum in which they’re accused of being anti-competitive. And two, letting consumers change their desktop search application represents minimal material risk to Microsoft.”
Brown says Microsoft is betting users won’t switch search engines because of the work involved in downloading, installing and configuring the new engine and eliminating the old one, and because the alternatives to Windows Desktop Search are not significantly better.
“Microsoft has a very compelling desktop search application built into Vista – arguably superior to Google Desktop search along a number of dimensions,” he says.
Google is living up to its silent reputation and holding its thoughts close to the vest. The company issued a statement Wednesday after Microsoft agreed to make changes in Vista.
“Microsoft’s current approach to Vista desktop search clearly violates the consent decree and limits consumer choice. We are pleased that as a result of Google’s request that the consent decree be enforced, the Department of Justice and state Attorneys General have required Microsoft to make changes to Vista. These remedies are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers,” said the statement issued by David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer.
But it is not just consumers that are at stake, experts say. The battle shaping up between Google and Microsoft includes search across corporate PCs, intranets and the Web.
“They are both going after universal search,” says Burton’s Creese. “It’s the idea that I make the search once and find everything on the desktop, the intranet and the Web.”
Google interest in the enterprise and desktop is clear from its Google Apps strategy, which includes word processing, spreadsheets and calendars, and its Google Gears project that will allow users to bring data down to their desktops and work offline.
“This is a high stakes game for both of them and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the enterprise,” says Creese.
Others say that Microsoft is beginning to get better at search and appears poised to be a viable foe for Google.
“Microsoft has deep pockets and they seem very committed, but I can’t speak to whether they will be a success,” says Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.
“The whole world of search is getting more interesting and complicated with different content types, videos and images; it’s becoming more sophisticated and ambitious. There is a lot at stake and still a lot of room for innovation and improvement,” Sterling says.
