Bing. Swell.
So, Microsoft is at it again. MSN Search turned out to be a dud… so they rebranded it as “Microsoft Live Search”… and that also turned out to be a dud. Now, they’ve … done… something…?
MS’s latest entry into the search…ey… space is “bing”. They call it a “decision engine”. Oh, great. So… where Google was just going to look through billions of documents to see if certain words or phrases appear in them, Microsoft (oh, sorry… “bing”… the “Microsoft Corporation” is in tiny, tiny font at the bottom of the page) wants to “help” me to make “the best” decisions. Hmm…
If MS Windows Vista is any indication of Microsoft’s decision-making prowess, I’ll stick with Google, and make my own decisions, thanks.
Then, of course, there’s always the question of platform-neutrality. Microsoft has a long, storied history of giving preferential treatment to its own platform, if they even offer products for other platforms. Microsoft has been at the forefront of lock-in for decades. The thought process goes something like this:
They get you with something… like… email.
Well… I use Outlook at work, so I should probably use it at home too. Well, that rules out Linux, because Microsoft doesn’t make Outlook for Linux. And Mac… well… do they make Outlook for Mac? I’m too lazy to check. I’m already AT SuperlativePurchase, and they’ve got this Compaq… that already has Outlook on it… What? It’s a trial version? Well, I can use it as long as I want… no? I have to pay extra to check my email? Hmmm… well, OK… but… that’s it. Wait… I might have to read a document from work. Does this machine come with Word? What’s Works? Oh… something of a misnomer… Well, because it doesn’t work. OK, so I guess you’d better set me up with MS Office, too. Professional? Why would I need that? Access? Hmm, well I do have all those recipes ….Money? Yes, I have the money right here…. Oh, MICROSOFT Money… no I don’t need that, I… Alright, well, I guess you’d better set me up with that, too.
So, now they own you. The default choice for any web service that MS offers is the MS choice. The default web browser is IE. The default media player is Windows Media Player… the default everything is Microsoft.
The trouble is that once you get into using the MS product, virtually anything you produce is either only usable in a Microsoft environment, or, if it does work at all elsewhere, it doesn’t work well. This is how Microsoft protects their marketshare. They don’t do it my fostering loyalty and/or passion. They do it the same way the heroin pusher does.
Every time Microsoft walks up with something “new” to offer, they always seem to do so with one hand behind their backs… and my first instinct is to try to see what they’re hiding…
Well… Microsoft has done nothing to earn my trust over the course of the last 30 years. To trust them, now, with my vacation plans… seems … a little foolish.