Tuesday, when I wrote about how Microsoft still doesn’t get it, I was talking about their ridiculous new XBox prototype which takes all the meaning out of being a video game nerd. How could I have known that the next day, they were going to publicly launch a… get this… a search engine.
That’s right. Microsoft is going to try to conquer Google, by playing Google’s game, on Google’s terms, in Google’s market, in the uphill battle against name recognition. In a world where “google it” has become the English language equivalent for doing an online search, Microsoft has decided to invest one hundred million dollars into Bing.
Bing. Yes, it’s called Bing. And I can’t help thinking there’s a “Bing Is Not Google” acronym hiding in there. Dude, you can’t beat Google by naming your web site after Google!
Well, whatever. As Mark Hurst puts it:
Everything Microsoft has tried recently hasn’t worked. They tried the “I’m a PC” ads, a knockoff of the Mac ads – didn’t work. Tried the Zune, a knockoff of the iPod – didn’t work. Tried redoing MSN Search again and again, as a knockoff of Google – didn’t work. What’s the world coming to, when Microsoft can’t build a monopoly around a knockoff?
It’s those effing customers. They keep choosing the best experience.
So we’ll see the MS hype for five minutes. All the nerds will try Bing for the next week. But in the end, we’ll all be using Google.
But at least Microsoft is doing something to stimulate the economy.