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Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

Blog First. Ask Questions Later.

No Truly Original Ideas and the MSN Toolbar

Yes they copied Google.  Just like they copied Java, and MacOS, and Palm, and Oracle, and Netscape, and Word and everything else.  They copy stuff.  Is it fair in the grand scheme of things?  Probably not. Am I increasingly irritated by MS? Yes.  Do I still think .NET is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Yes. Does asking myself questions like this remind you of Rumsfeld?  I hope so.

Is it better than Google?  No.  The one thing I can say for sure, is that the OS integration is much nicer that Google's.  It looks better.  It's got some potential with it's desktop backend indexing engine. See Scott Hansleman's post here.  There's also a video on Channel 9 that shows some of the cool features that you can watch (that is if you can stomach all of the sentences starting with the word “so...“ bleah). 

But all that is not enough to get me to use the MSN web search over Google. Sure, it searches the desktop better, but I already know what's on my desktop, for the most part anyway.  The only thing I really ever need to search is email. 90% of my searching happens on the web. 

And this is where Google has it all over Microsoft.  Google's web search is just plain superior.  And I have a feeling that it will be for some time to come. What makes me say this? Well, when I search for stuff that I know is out there (because I put it there) Google finds it.  MSN search doesn't.  In fact, it only finds a fraction of it. If you don't blog, or publish stuff to the web, you'll never even know that MSN searching is inferior.  Most people can't do this test, but I assure you.  If you want to find something on the Web, “Google First.“ Leave MSN Web search for your grandmother.

Someone once told me that there's no such thing as a truly original idea.  That's probably true.  If this is true, we shouldn't get so hung up on original ideas, it's too hard to patent them anyhow. MS can and will copy any original idea it needs to.  What they can't copy is Google's back end searching and indexing technology, at least not as quickly, because although it may be an original idea, it's secret.  Microsoft can't look at it and copy it and Google will never need to allow access to it's back end technology.  This is a huge protection that they have going for them, and is what will keep me Googling for some time to come... As long as Google can provide me better searching of what I care most about (everything outside of my computer) they'll have an edge on MSN.

-Brendan



Comments

Jan Tielens said:

Why so negative? In my opinion Google is a copy as well, just think about Yahoo. I think of the whole desktop search thing as a new technology that every company should invest in.
# December 14, 2004 3:30 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Well, I don't know if this is really that negative. If we're comaring Desktop Search with Destop Search, MSN probably wins. But, when you compare the search experience a la the toolbar, Google wins out because it searches what's important - the web - better.

But Google a copy? Well, in so far as it is search engine, yes. But, give credit where it's due... They've practically invented way modern searching works!


# December 14, 2004 3:53 AM

Tony Bishop said:

Taking an existing product and making it better is the cornerstone of progress in business. To deny this is to believe there should be only one make/model of car, plane, tomato sauce (ketchup), camera and blog. Our world would be a vastly different place if all technological advancement stopped at the first product to enter or create a new product catagory - after all the car is only a copy of the original transport catagory represented by the horse and buggy.

Compared to some of the copycat mainstream product that comes out of open source - Open Office, Gimp etc - - these products do not advance the catagory one little bit - and are generally well behind the 'name brand' product.

Excel was a significant advance on Lotus 123, Word on what was it called, and yes IE Explorer on Netscape in its day. The list is long.

I think too many 'copycat' accusations confuse a comparison with a branded product, rather than looking at advancement of that product catagory.
# December 14, 2004 2:11 PM

public Blog said:

Another 2 cents on desktop searching....
# December 14, 2004 4:51 PM

Erik Lane said:

The MSN toolbar suite (just to get the desktop search) really turned me off with all the MSN stuff every where. I'm test driving Google desktop now.
# December 16, 2004 3:19 AM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.

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