Meet Google's Lobbyist—Again

New York Times reporter Miguel Helft profiles Dana Wagner, the lobbyist in charge of convincing the world that Google (GOOG) isn't a monopoly, despite whatever your lying eyes might tell you. If you've read The Big Money's take on Wagner (and don't say you haven't!), you already know the gist of the piece: Google claims that it's actually a small player if you define the market as every bit of advertising sold in the universe, it doesn't use its power to unfairly restrict competition, anyone can steal Google's customer base in seconds by building a better product, etc. But one tidbit stood out in Helft's piece.

Google's presentation has long been circulating on the Internet—long enough, in fact, for rivals and consumer groups to rebut it point-by-point. At a San Francisco press conference earlier this month, Wagner was going through his talking points when reporters started getting e-mails on their smartphones. It was Microsoft (MSFT), mailing counterarguments to the press even as Wagner was making his pitch. Suddenly, Wagner discovered, reporters' questions were considerably more skeptical than he might have anticipated.

We can't think of a time when a company's rival hijacked a press conference via e-mail in real time. That's gotta be a first. Between this, Bing's unexpected power and utility, and the $80 million to $100 million the company is spending promoting the search engine, Microsoft is staying on Google like white on rice.