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Google vs Microsoft: A Guide to the Battle

Last night, Google jumped directly into Microsoft’s home turf by announcing Google Chrome OS, its new operating system for PCs and netbooks. And while we’re still debating whether it will take down Windows or flop like a fish on land, we tend to forget that this isn’t the first time Google’s challenged Microsoft. In fact, it’s become almost routine. Whether its operating systems, documents, search, communication, or mobile, the two behemoths have been increasingly butting heads in a war for tech supremacy. Now with Google Chrome OS making headlines, we thought it would be appropriate to perform a straight-up comparison of where the competition between Google and Microsoft stands. So who’s winning the war? And how will Google Chrome OS affect this longstanding battle? Here’s an overview:

1. Search

Google: What is there to say, really? Search is to Google as Windows is to Microsoft. They dominate the search market by a wide margin, despite Microsoft’s best efforts (including the company’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo).

Microsoft: They had to do something drastic to compete in search, and they did with their recent launch of Bing. It’s received a lot of press, a lot of positive reviews, and has clearly caught Google’s attention. But does anyone seriously think it will overtake Google’s dominance in search anytime soon?

Advantage: Google. By light years.

2. Documents

Microsoft: Microsoft Office, with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel have been the leading way to create and edit documents for years, and for good reason – they’re widely used, widely known, and feature-rich. There’s also now Microsoft Office Live, which while not as collaborative as Google Docs, isn’t a bad solution and has the benefit of being connected to the desktop apps.

Google: Google Docs have been growing in features and users. They provide a level of collaboration that Microsoft documents simply don’t offer. But they don’t provide as many options as Microsoft Office and they just don’t have nearly as many users. This is one area where the majority of users still prefer the desktop to the web.

Advantage: Microsoft

3. Communication, Email, and IM

Microsoft: While Google’s probably more revered for Gmail and its communication suite, Hotmail is still bigger, and Live Messenger is heavily used. Microsoft also produces the popular Outlook software and has software in a variety of arenas, such as Windows Live Meeting, giving the company an edge in the enterprise.

Google: The search giant has a suite of very popular communication products – Gmail and Gtalk being the best known. The X factor in this debate though, is the upcoming Google Wave communication platform, which has impressed us so far. There’s also the intriguing Google Voice offering to consider.

Advantage: Push

4. Mobile

Google: Google’s has good traction with its Android mobile OS given it’s relatively new to the space. It runs on more than one million T Mobile phones and has a strong app platform. Many of Google’s apps also run well on mobile phones, especially Google Maps and YouTube .

Microsoft: Windows Mobile still shipped tens of millions of units last year, far outpacing Android. It also has apps to run Office, Outlook, and Windows Media Player. We think the long-term trend favors Google, but as of right now Microsoft is the leader.

Advantage: Microsoft, but perhaps not for long.

5. Operating System

Microsoft: This is Microsoft’s bread and butter. Windows is the reason Microsoft makes $60+ billion in revenue every year and has stayed on top for so long. Its stranglehold is legendary. Yet Windows Vista proved that it is not invincible.

Google: Let’s say this: we can’t wait to see what Google has in store for Google Chrome OS. We’re skeptical that it could ever kill Windows, but Google will be Microsoft’s most powerful challenger yet.

Conclusion: We look forward to the upcoming war.

Web Citizens Try To Kill IE 6 Browser

Some Web designers are staging an online revolt against an old version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, which they say is hampering the ability of the Web to move forward in a cool and interactive way.

Some Web developers are trying to weed an old version of Internet Explorer from peoples’ computers.

The designers say Internet Explorer 6, which was released in 2001 and since has been updated twice by Microsoft Corp., is crippling the Internet’s potential and slowing down the online experience. They also blame IE 6 for giving webmasters a collective headache, because they have to write special “hacks” into Web code to accommodate an outmoded browser.

An estimated 15 to 25 percent of people still use IE 6 as their portal to the Internet, according to two Web monitors.

In recent months, several Web companies have launched sites devoted to the idea of undermining or killing Internet Explorer 6. The most recent site, called “IE 6 No More,” has gained momentum this week on social-media sites like Twitter and Digg in part because a number of respected Internet start-up companies have signed onto the campaign.

The “IE 6 No More” site provides Web developers with a piece of code — an online hurdle, essentially — they can install to encourage Internet users to download a new browser before coming back to the site.

“As any Web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time,” an introduction on the site says. “Beyond that, IE 6’s support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the Web back.”

On the surface, the campaign against IE 6 may seem like a cult of disgruntled techies who are angry at Microsoft or want to gripe about people who lag behind the technological curve.

But that analysis is too simplistic, said Dan Oliver, editor of .net, a UK magazine about Web design

This isn’t an anti-Microsoft campaign,” he said. “Microsoft makes some fantastic products. The latest version of their browser is a good browser. But with regards to IE 6 … [it] is an awful browser and no one should be using it.”

He added: “Ultimately, we’ve kind of waited long enough. That’s why there’s a big movement of support for it because the geeks out there have known about this for years and have been waiting for big sites to jump on and push it forward.”

In a statement to CNN, Microsoft said it also wants people to turn away from IE 6.

“Microsoft has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to the latest version of our browser,” the company said. “Internet Explorer 8 offers improvements in speed, security and reliability as well as new features designed for the way people use the Web.”

Oliver said his magazine started an anti-IE 6 Web site about three months ago. The movement has been growing among savvy Web developers for years, he said, but has hit a groundswell since bigger-name Internet companies jumped aboard.

YouTube, for instance, now sends a message to Internet Explorer 6 users who visit the site, asking them to upgrade to another browser like Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

The video-streaming site will continue to function in a basic way for IE 6 users, according to a statement sent to CNN by YouTube.

But bigger problems for IE 6 may be on the horizon as the Web becomes more complicated.

Developers are already working with a new Web language — called HTML 5 — that is expected to make Web sites able to display flashier video, save documents to computers more easily and act more like traditional computer applications.

When that shift comes, IE 6 will doubtlessly perish, said Ben Parr, a writer for the social-networking news blog Mashable.

“We’re about to hit a breaking point where innovation will be stifled if Web sites must continue to cater to this browser,” he wrote in a post titled, “IE 6 Must Die for the Web to Move On.”

The browser’s popularity is declining as newer versions of Internet Explorer become more widely used. But it’s unclear whether everyone who continues to use IE 6 does so by choice.

Many businesses have built computer applications that run on the browser, and upgrades to those systems can be costly and difficult.

That makes campaigns that tell people to switch their browser ineffective, Mark Trammell, a Digg employee, wrote on the company’s blog.

“Giving them a message saying, ‘Hey! Upgrade!’ in this case is not only pointless; it’s sadistic,” he wrote, also noting that Digg likely will stop supporting IE 6 for some of the site’s functions.

That leaves some Web sites trying to find a middle ground. They want to be cutting-edge, but they also don’t want to alienate IE 6 users and business clients.

Justin.tv, which lets people stream video live online, is among the sites trying to strike a balance.

The company is backing an anti-IE 6 Web site, but Evan Solomon, the site’s vice-president for marketing, said the best thing that will come out of this discussion is that more people will become aware that there are alternatives in Web browsers.

It’s also important to know how much those browsers control a person’s Internet experience, he said.

“It sucks for us if someone comes to the site and has a bad experience and the reason that happens is because they use a browser that was developed 10 years ago,” he said.

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