The clash between Google and Microsoft intensified as Microsoft and Yahoo reached a partnership deal that will give Microsoft 28% of the search engine market. Bing, the fourth incarnation of a Microsoft search engine, will now reside on Yahoo. Since 2005, despite repeated efforts to the contrary, Microsoft has lost ground in search engine market shares, coming in a perennial third place behind Google and Yahoo, but this new partnership, combining Yahoo (number 2) with Microsoft (number 3), may just be the thing to finally bring the battle to the market leader Google who still retains 65% of the search engine market.
Google and Microsoft have been skirmishing all year. After Microsoft failed to buyout Yahoo last year, a brute force attempt to challenge Google's dominance in the search engine/home page market, Google released its own Chrome browser, adding to its free application offerings that include Google Docs, an online office suite that continues to grow in features and popularity. Although a feeble challenge to Microsoft's Internet Explorer or the Herculean MS Office Suite, these free applications are not unlike shells fired deep into Microsoft territory. Returning fire, Microsoft announced that the upcoming MS Office 2010 would be offered for free online and will include many online features similar to those found in Google Docs. This prompted Google to announce its most ambitious project yet: an operating system called Chrome OS. The details of this OS are murky at best, apparently it will consist of a Linux kernel wrapped up in a Chrome browser, but it represents the most hostile attack yet on Microsoft whose Windows operating system remains its chief product.
Chrome OS may be nothing more than vaporware, or perhaps Google's version of SDI, the Cold War's greatest piece of vaporware, but it is sure to keep the clash between Google and Microsoft interesting.
Google vs. Microsoft: Will This Time Be Different?
