Lines Finally Drawn in the Tech Wars

Now that Microsoft (MSFT) has unveiled its new search engine and Google (GOOG) has announced plans to unveil its new operating system, the battle lines between the two tech giants have finally fallen into place, and the war can begin in earnest. From search to software, Microsoft and Google are waging a titanic struggle in just about every high-tech market you can imagine. One might think that there's plenty of cash to go around and this cage match seems a little excessive. But then one wouldn't understand the competitive drive that got both players to the top of the heap. So shake hands, gentleman, and don't hit below the belt. OK, fine—slug as southward as you want.

Wired writer Ryan Singel has penned a useful scorecard for the bout, detailing both companies' strengths and weaknesses in every market they plan to fight for. Each firm is in essence a one-trick pony; Microsoft dominates in operating systems and software, while Google gets almost all its revenue from search advertising. Nonetheless, they both see a universe of different services out there, and are racing to be the one you will exclusively rely on for all of them. Here's Singel's graceful construction:

"Microsoft would love for everyone in the world to be using its Internet Explorer browser to search through Bing to find a story from its MSN portal to email via Hotmail or Outlook to a friend. Add in a smartphone running Windows Mobile and an Xbox in the living room for the kids, and you have a Microsoft family. And though it is much joked about, Microsoft is the dominant platform for software developers of all types, whether they are making small business software, massive online role-playing games or photo-editing utilities.

"Google's ecosystem looks different. It starts with a Google Chrome browser (oddly running only on Windows) with a default homepage set to Google News or a customized Google homepage. From there you might go to Gmail and then click on a Word document sent to you as an attachment which Google will quickly—and safely—open for you in its online word processor.

"But most importantly, Google wants you to search and travel around the web, hitting web pages that run Google-served ads and Google tracking cookies."

Singel then puts both firms head-to-head in four different areas, trying to suss out who will win: browsers, online search, operating systems, and advertising. Although you should read the whole thing for his full analysis, Singel's conclusion is roughly: Google is consistently better, but Microsoft's already got a lot of the market locked up, and people don't like to change unless they have a damn good reason to.