Why Microsoft will Never Succeed In Search

Posted on May 21, 2007, under Email, Operating Systems, Search, Tools and Services.

My recent change over to a Linux desktop has really given me some different perspective on things. It has allowed me to see things differently. The task of trying to find Linux replacements for some of my “must have” Windows desktop applications proved to not as easy as I thought. In the process I quickly learned what big name companies support Linux by making their applications and products cross platform. Google was on one side with their Linux versions of Picasa and Google Earth. this really had me thinking about how Microsoft plans on succeeding in the search market when they are too stubborn to embrace other communities like Linux and Macintosh. The search business involves managing data, take Google the undisputed leader in search. For email it’s GMail, for instant messaging it’s Google Talk, for documents and spreadsheets it’s Google Docs and Google Desktop Search, and the list goes on. So how is Microsoft going to compete with this? Is Microsoft’s online Office going to be compatible with Firefox with absolutely no feature different? Is Microsoft going to release a Linux or Macintosh version for their Desktop search product? Is Microsoft’s Picasa killer going to support other image and video formats that are not Windows dependent and plugged into to their DRM system.

Microsoft has never really been platform independent. They stopped releasing Internet Explorer for the Mac, the web-mail for Microsoft Exchange is completely less usable and has less features if running on a browser other than Internet Explorer, and IMAP in Outlook has never worked the way IMAP is supposed to work. Microsoft has always had the problem of needed to own the entire market, and complete the circle from Desktop, to Internet, to Mobile; this does not play well when you want to be a service company.

Enter in the ongoing rumor that Microsoft has been looking at Yahoo for an acquisition, and I am completely dumbfounded. Yahoo uses open source technology like PHP and MySQL. How long is it going to take for Microsoft to convert all of that over to Microsoft proprietary software? And what is the cost in doing so in terms of advancing your product from its current state?

Maybe I am missing something in all of this, but I just am not sure how Microsoft plans on putting the pieces together. When you are a service company, you have no platform in the term of Windows, Linux, or Mac, you need to bee diverse, which is something Microsoft built a monopoly on top of not being.

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6 Replies to "Why Microsoft will Never Succeed In Search"

Ian on May 21, 2007

I think this post can be summed up by the well known phrase “comparing apples to oranges.”

They’re two completely different things: cross-platform support and searching.

Matthew R. Miller on May 21, 2007

I do not think that is true… search is managing data, as stated in the article. Searching the Internet, Searching the Desktop.

Additionally the way to interact with search, Mobile browser, Desktop Browser, SMS, etc. It all needs to be platform independent, otherwise you are limiting your customer base.

Tom Ham on May 22, 2007

“My recent change over to a Linux desktop has really given me some different perspective on things. It has allowed me to see things differently.”

The question is if you’ve got the religion and differently means you have no concept of reality anymore.

“Microsoft plans on succeeding in the search market when they are too stubborn to embrace other communities like Linux and Macintosh”

You haven’t looked at the numbers have you? Linux on the desktop never took off and Macintosh is still stuck in their own hardware universe.

“Maybe I am missing something in all of this, but I just am not sure how Microsoft plans on putting the pieces together”

They usually lose it when they get caught up in the religion. Don’t let it happen to you.

Matthew R. Miller on May 22, 2007

I am still very diverse, I understand that Windows will always be a very big competitor in the desktop market.

However, what I am also saying is that Microsoft needs to be diverse with it’s web services if it wants to compete with other top players in the web services market. Google can support multiple operating systems because currently it does not develop the worlds most used OS.

If Microsoft created a You-Tube competitor that took off would it run a flash player on the site, or would it stream the media using Media Player and be all DRM’d?

This is the difference between a web service succeeding and failing. With a web-service you need to support any platform that comes to you, you need to be diverse to your audience. I do not see Microsoft doing that so far. Yes the numbers for the Linux desktop and mac desktop are not those of Windows, but they are still customers, they are still advertising dollars, and they are still large.

The web is not platform dependent.. I should not need to e running certain browser or OS to view a certain page, that’s very Web 1.0-ish.

Augusto on May 23, 2007

MS success or failure on *search* has nothing to do with platform independence. Search engines are the easiest things to enable in multiple platforms, as they have web based (and usually) simple interfaces.

I get what you are trying to say, but it has almost nothing to do with search. At all.