Death Match

Round 1:

The big daddy of search Google arrives and knocks out every search engine existing on the planet including Microsoft's MSN search and Yahoo!

Points: MS - 2 Google – 10

Round 2:

Google launches Gmail, a free email service with huge storage space. MS jabs back boosting free memory in Hotmail but the damage is inevitable.

Points: MS - 4 Google – 6

Round 3: Google jumps the advertisement bandwagon, which becomes its cash cow by bundling ads with search results.

Points: MS - 1 Google – 7

Round 4:

MS takes Google to court claiming that it is confusing users by showing search results with ads. MS makes Yahoo its ally with an ad delivery contract to counter Google's Ad sense.

Points: MS - 7 Google – 2

Round 5:

Google hires Kai-Fu Lee, VP Microsoft.

The battle for Kai-Fu Lee, underlines a growing animosity between the two companies, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer allegedly pitching such a fit after losing one executive in 2004 that he threatened to "kill Google" over the continued poaching of Redmond's top brass, even flinging furniture and dropping more F-bombs than I've heard tell in awhile.<http://www.aurorawdc.com>

MS strikes back and sues Google and wins the case.

Points: MS - 9 Google – 1

Round 6:

Google hits with ultimate thunderbolt, partners with Sun Microsystems in producing Open Office. This move ends MS's tyranny in office application software. MS runs scared of the Open Document format started by Adobe.

Points: MS - 0 Google – 7

Round 7:

As the noose tightens around MS it strikes with its old war trick - copying the technology (a rabbit punch), with which it had defeated many competitors like revolutionary Apple. Microsoft enters enemy's backyard search! Google gives a counter punch building a "patent fence" around search and takes on Yahoo first, then leveraging cutting edge user interface design technologies present in Google Maps (which could challenge PowerPoint) and Gmail (the RTF technology already offering about 70 percent of the functionality behind Word). Deployed on the "Googleplex" platform Google has created as its supercomputer-like infrastructure, calling into question Microsoft's very necessity isn't far around the corner.

Points: MS - 6 Google – 7

Round 8:

Google moved further into Microsoft territory with the Deskbar, a search box that sits on the Windows OS.

Points: MS - 4 Google - 6

Future

Round 9:

Search is still an infant. Google is still a web page. Don't get deceived by that, it will be shear ignorance. MS knows that and its going crazy fighting Google. Why? What's the obsession for?

Because it knows search is a key component in the future of computing. Microsoft's next-generation OS, Longhorn (first OS to be coded in .Net framework and c#), is conceived as a unified interface for a PC, its local network, and the Web. For it to work, Longhorn needs a sleek search utility. If Microsoft can't buy Google, it'll resort to its time-tested strategy: copy the best technology and integrate it on the desktop. What could MS do with longhorn? It could engrain SEARCH within the OS! Bypassing the competitor altogether and the almighty OS reigns…

Result: MS knocks out Google!

Round 10:

Google has becomes more than a business driven by search. Although it’s search box is a phone book and a dictionary. It can check stock prices, provide news, track FedEx packages, perform metric conversions, locate airplanes, offer street maps, and supply weather conditions. It'll search retail outlets by zip code and, with Froogle, scour the Web for products. In short, Google execs are innovating like they're running from someone. "People at Google don't talk about it, but it's pretty evident," says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch. "Microsoft's making a move into search that's equal to its move into Web browsers. That's got to make you nervous." It becomes the Walmart of the hi tech industry churning out newer and innovative product. Transforming R&D into an assembly line.

Result: Google knocks out MS!

For all their differences, the two companies have a lot in common. Microsoft looks at Google and sees its own past, full of promise. Google looks at Microsoft and sees the future - a company that dominates the tech landscape.