Microsoft teams with Sun, aims to take Google down
Microsoft announced today that it will be teaming up with Sun Microsystems on a web search deal in an attempt to move one step closer to catching up with Google. It would appear as though Microsoft is getting pretty aggressive with its partnerships and expansions this year. First, it announced a partnership with LG for future Windows Mobile devices from the South Korean electronics company. Then there was the deal with Hewlett-Packard and the plan to add a new search toolbar to its future machines. Now, the partnership with Sun stipulates that users who download the Java platform will also be prompted with an option to download the MSN Toolbar for direct web searches using Microsoft’s engine. Yusuf Mehdi, SVP of Online Audience Business at Microsoft, said, “This deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers.” Things are getting intense for the continued fight for search engine market share as Microsoft had to aggressively outbid several other would-be Sun suitors for this deal. With Google holding 63% of the search engine market and Microsoft at 8.3%, it’s pretty clear that Microsoft has a long road ahead of it.
Problem here is, Live Search won’t help you find anything, i mean microsoft should be glad they even have 8.3 market share cause live search is nearly unusable for finding anything.
This makes no sense. If Microsoft wanted to put the MSN toolbar into IE, why don’t they just go ahead and put it in there themselves?
As a developer I *love* Java the way it is. Polluting the JRE download with some random MSN toolbar crap is not good for Java.
Anyone using Java is smart enough to know that Live Search is crap. So, user will simply uncheck the “Install Live Search toolbar” option. Microsoft is just wasting time with partnership… building good products, that would help!
Microsoft is a software company and they should stick to software. I am sorry but they can’t compete with a dot com company the size of google.
Guess this is what they meant in response to Yang that they have moved on? Doesn’t sound nearly as game changing.
I mean tactics have to be tried you know. The whole idea of give up can be said for when google started out and yahoo ruled the search world…if they had given up they wouldn’t have been on top now…same goes for Apple when it was about to go bankrupt, now look at the ipod/iphone.
Haven’t we learned anything form the election? Can’t shouldn’t be in our vocabulary people. Sounds a bit cliche but it is true…especially if you have the money to try.
Ok I am sorry I used the word can’t, if microsoft uses all of it resources it can take down google. But can they afford stopping all R&D for their software business and put it towards this project. Google isn’t competing directly with microsoft with the development of the Android OS, Windows Mobile is a small part of what microsoft does. Now Google is a search engine and that’s what they do. Microsoft would be competing with Google main business. Not going to be pretty
Why don’t the spend time in improving their search results. I accidentially end up using their search from time to time (defaults on a foreign computer) and the signal to noise ratio is considerably higher than Google, and even Yahoo.
Microsoft gaining on Google with these great partnerships should be as easy as climbing Mount Everest in shorts and sandals! HAHA
My prediction Ballmer out in less then three years! Windows Mobile will be lucky to have any users in three years.
@slim…what qualifies you to make such rash statements? Do you even know microsofts numbers? And what they put into r and d??
Google is the ish…. Or the new era like a fitted cap I prefare google that live seach
Sun is almost out of business, so if Ballmer wants to pay them to play at something that will have no impact against Google why wouldn’t Sun take their money!
In about three years I bet we will have the death knell meter on old Redmond!
i had a feeling microsoft and sun was in cahoots. i work at microsofts chicago data center. which is still under construction. and there is a big room where they are going to be storing shipping containers with servers inside of them. and as far as i know sun has a patent for using shipping containers to hold servers at a data center