September 20th, 2008
Microsoft, this is how you can deal with Google
Google has again gained a whole percentage point this month, at the expense of Microsoft (losing 0.9%). It seems that Microsoft is consistently losing ground — the ship is sinking, and it doesn’t appear they can do anything about it. So much for that $1 billion per year they are putting towards gaining market share over Google. What can they do to get on the right track?
Let me explain something to you, Microsoft. What you are doing isn’t working — it’s as simple as that. It’s easy for someone to say that you aren’t doing a good job, so that’s why I’m going to give you a solution. Take it for what it’s worth, but this suggestion will instantly start making your search division profitable — somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $500 million per year (without spending a dime). Not only will you start making money, but you will also hopefully start seeing your market share begin rising rather than declining.
What is the plan? It’s going to be a tough pill for you to swallow, but it has to do with letting Google serve up search results and ads on your Microsoft Live search engine. Of course, I don’t know if Google will want to help you out, but it’s worth a shot if you serious about the future.
But wasn’t doing this what caused Yahoo to fall out of the lead? Using Google’s search technology was a mistake back then, because Yahoo already had the lead. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain — Microsoft is so far away from first place that using Google, in my opinion, will do nothing but help.
After signing a multi-year exclusive deal with Google, you can spend those hundreds of millions of dollars per year that Google is giving you on extremely talented engineers and creative marketing geniuses. These folks can take their time to rebuild your search engine behind closed doors (one that can hopefully be competitive). Why not leech off Google for once?
The likelihood of Microsoft going down this road is basically zero, and it may actually be looked at by Yahoo and Ask as a textbook case of antitrust, but it sure would be interesting, wouldn’t it?
Garett Rogers 
is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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