May 29th, 2007
Microsoft gains over Google in Holy Land
In Microsoft ‘proud’ to trump Google in search last month I reported a Microsoft victory over Google in Israel, in enterprise search.
Microsoft continues to make inroads over Google in the Holy Land.
When Microsoft and Google were recently put to a head to head search performance test to vie for an Israeli Government enterprise contract, Microsoft was selected as the vendor, not Google.
Microsoft Israel CEO Dan Yamin on the victory:
This is a significant achievement because this is one of the largest websites in the country. This is a worldclass achievement because searches on enterprise websites is becoming very competitive and we are very proud to have beaten Google.
Now, as Google is poised to intensify its PR evangelism for its touted “Developer Day” on Thursday, an Israeli software developer is questioning just how committed Google really is to software developers, in Israel.
(SEE What is Google’s Open Source end game?)
Eran Sandler, proud “geek” and developer for a Web start-up based in Israel, asks: “Google Israel, Where art thou in the developer community?”
Sandler underscores Google Developer day is “happening at 10 different locations worldwide, but NOT in Israel”:
I know there are suppose to be two development centers in Israel, one in Haifa, which I know is located in MATAM cause you can see it from road #2 leading from Tel Aviv to Haifa near Intel and Microsoft Haifa, but I have no idea where the other development center in Israel is located, other than the fact that its suppose to be in the Tel Aviv area.
I don’t know how active Google is in the development community in other countries besides the US but I think that Google Israel, and the rest of Google, as well as the rest of the development community in Israel will benefit if they’ll open up a bit and become a major player in the development community.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has “figured this out a long time ago,” Sandler notes:
There are quite a few communities that meet once a month. There is also at least one full time Microsoft employee, at least that I know of, that is logistically leading this effort and making sure everyone stay happy and use MS products. I don’t even talk about the big events Microsoft Israel holds at least once a year to show off new things and to educate people about the new technology.
I guess this effort paid off since most of the companies developing in Israel today, and quite a few startups, even in the web 2.0 arena, are using Microsoft technologies and not Open Source products and technologies.
SHALOM!
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