The Man ... Google?

In recent news: Microsoft's suing Google. Google's brain draining Microsoft. At the same time Google & Microsoft are trying to overtake Yahoo's dominance in Asia. Note: China. Oh, corporate turf wars.

Is Google the next Microsoft? Will this startup tech company morph into a corporate giant? Let's compare: Google is a spry, young startup who's made web searching less painful. It is "in" enough to enter our daily speech ("googling" someone). In contrast, Microsoft has made our ability to compute somewhat painful. It is viewed as the Man, the Evil Empire; as it dominates the ability for businesses to operate. Jack Black in School of Rock would say "stick it to the Man."

Both companies latch onto bright minds. Both consume other companies and wield savy marketing to entered new markets. For example, Google ate Picasa & Keyhole; Microsoft ate Bungie (innovated creators of games like Halo). Certainly acquisitions are not uncommon in the industry; however Google's and Microsoft's efforts generate so much publicity and are adopted by so many users so rapidly.

Tangent: in the '90's, Bungie was developing Halo for the Mac primarily, until Microsoft offered to buy Bungie, an offer they could not refuse ($$$ & a part in creating the Xbox). Though Steve Jobs introduced Halo to the world, it was Gates who ran (away) with it.

Where will Google go next? It has a long way yet to become "the Man"-- people like it too much, yet it's influence is spreading... thank Google for blogger.com.