Why Microsoft is afraid of Google?

How do innovations at Google threaten Microsoft?

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates says:
"Google Inc. is fierce competition for Microsoft Corp., but the software giant does not fear the race and plans to upgrade his search technology in the next six months."
and,
"We are not afraid of Google, but there is intense competition between us. Google is our main competitor, brilliant people work there, but Internet search engines are still in a terrible state compared to where they could be."

Gates says that he has respect for the people who work there, but search can still be made a lot better than what Google has already achieved.

Microsoft and Yahoo already have been investing heavily in search, hoping to narrow Google's lead in the field.
According to Nielsen/NetRatings survey for U.S search requests:
- 45% -- Google
- 23% -- Yahoo
- 12% -- Microsoft's MSN

Gates denied that Microsoft intends to acquire[buy] Google or other leading Internet companies.
ummmm, this means MS is thinking about it, but who told them that Google will even think about it?

But the central challenge to Microsoft goes beyond corporate reorganizations, Microsoft's success has been due in large part to its realization two decades ago that control of the operating system on personal computers would give it a great amount of leverage over PCs. Most companies in the 1980s saw the operating system as a pure commodity product, but Microsoft understood that it held the keys to the kingdom.. It's because of the dominance of the Windows operating system that Microsoft has been able to become so strong.. The dominance of Windows means that if you're a developer of a major software application, you need to deliver a product for Windows.. This means software developers must use the programming capabilities provided by Windows — its application programming interface, or API.

But many in the computer business have long believed that the core platform could be moved to a higher level, that technology gurus could establish a web-based platform that runs in the browser and is written in the language of the browser rather than the language of the operating system.. They work equally well on Windows, Mac or Linux, and that's bad news for Microsoft.

This was the dream of Marc Andreessen [co-founder of browser company Netscape Communications] and others back in the mid-1990s when Andreessen boasted that the web would reduce computer operating systems to nothing more than 'a poorly debugged set of device drivers' and this is why Microsoft responded so aggressively to the threat of Netscape after Bill Gates issued his famous memo warning of an Internet 'tidal wave' that threatened Windows. Netscape didn't succeed. Microsoft managed to thwart Netscape's attempt to establish a new platform on the web.

Key points against Microsoft:
1. When a company takes years and years to come out with a new operating system, it's obvious there is a problem.
2. While [Bill and Co.] refuse to break up the company, they should. They are too big to be creative. They need a company for the operating system, another one for the Internet, and another one for application software.
3. Since they have Cash on Hand of about 37-billion, they should do their loyal stockholders a favor: Pay a quarterly dividend.

Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone
It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce.

Google is turning the internet to an operating system, which drives Microsoft crazy and embarrassed, see the following:
Signs of panic inside MS: When one of Microsoft's key operating system engineers defected to Google last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threw a chair across an office and vowed to kill Google.

The migration of applications from PCs to the Net is already happening - and it's key to Google's future. But the likelihood of a Google OS depends on what Microsoft accomplishes with its new OS, Vista.

The computer industry is a mature industry. In the developed world, virtually everyone has a computer. So Microsoft, to continue growing, needs to find new ways to expand its market, which is why they want to get into games, wireless and business-software markets. In these areas they're generating substantial losses. To the extent that Google becomes a dominant player in the Internet market, it blocks an opportunity for Microsoft to expand.

Why Microsoft and other giants are afraid of Google's ever-expanding agenda:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/google.html

MDC06 has been declared

After alot of digging around for info conerning the MDC06, i got the following data:

** MDC 2006:
Where: Cairo International Conference Center - Nasr City - Cairo - Egypt
When: 5-8 February 2006

as we all see, MDC location has chenged from Air Forces House!

LE 50:
but there's bad news in this MDC!, u will pay LE 50 for ur ID!
u'll register by mail and then @ 5 February u'll pay the LE 50.

i don't know why Microsoft is imposing a fee, do they really need money! maybe they r homeless now, or will take this money and try to Kill Google!!!! hahaha

they say on the site:
"A great value: For 50 EGP you’ll get your MDC 2006 ID that gets you into a lot of break-out sessions, interactive labs, MDC Gifts, and much, much more."

well, it seems that they r going to take a price for the GIFTS ;)

Meet u there folks, IF i decided to go!...

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Google Search Techniques

Google search is NOT just typing the keyword and hit search.. it's far beyond this..
u can make very strong queries using Google search techniques..

such as:
Cached Links, Currency Conversion, Definitions, File Types, I'm Feeling Lucky, News Headlines, PhoneBook, Q&A, Results Prefetching, Search By Number, Similar Pages, Site Search, Spell Checker, Stock Quotes, Weather, Web Page Translation, Who Links To You..and alot more..

the real magic here is that u can do all of these very cool techniques from google's homepage!
YES, without navigating to extra pages inside..

see the complete list of awsome features @
http://www.google.com/help/features.html

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Blog events - Jan 13, 2006

Comming very soon in the blog:

1. RSS Feeds, so u can read new blog posts thru a RSS Reader, without even opening ur browser.

2. RSS, what's it, how to use it, how to create it on ur blogs and sites.

3. Web 2.0 siteList, a list dedicated to Web 2.0 services contains 50 sites with whole new ideas implementing Web 2.0 features.
[30 entries are in the list now and counting]

Be patient..

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Web 2.0 - Dawn of the new internet

Web 2.0 : It's like your brain on LSD!

This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0

The term was coined by Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media during a conference brainstorming session with MediaLive International.

In the initial brainstorming, they formulated the sense of Web 2.0 by example:

Web 2.0 can also be defined as : Websites with rich user interfaces that behave more like desktop applications than a collection of interlinked pages to be read.

In the strictest sense, the term refers to several separate technologies that make Web sites faster and easier to use. If you've used Google's Gmail service, Yahoo's Flickr photo sharing site or Microsoft's Windows Live, you've seen Web 2.0 in action.

Wikipedia defines it as “a second phase of development of the World Wide Web”. However, there isn’t a consensus on its exact meaning. Web 2.0 loosely includes weblogs, wikis, linklogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and other forms of many-to-many publishing; social software, web APIs, web standards, web services and Ajax.

In Web 1.0, a small number of writers created Web pages for a large number of readers. As a result, people could get information by going directly to the source: Adobe.com for graphic design issues, Microsoft.com for Windows issues, and CNN.com for news. Over time, however, more and more people started writing content in addition to reading it. This had an interesting effect—suddenly there was too much information to keep up with! We did not have enough time for everyone who wanted our attention and visiting all sites with relevant content simply wasn’t possible. As personal publishing caught on and went mainstream, it became apparent that the Web 1.0 paradigm had to change.

Enter Web 2.0, a vision of the Web in which information is broken up into “microcontent” units that can be distributed over dozens of domains. The Web of documents has morphed into a Web of data. We are no longer just looking to the same old sources for information. Now we’re looking to a new set of tools to aggregate and remix microcontent in new and useful ways.

A big part of Web 2.0 is turning passive visitors and readers into active participants in producing the value that is offered by a website. If you’ve ever been addicted to a Web-based forum, then you know how powerful this can be. Web 2.0 is about taking that “power of community” and applying it to the Web as a whole.

The technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 is complex and evolving, but includes server software, content syndication, messaging protocols, standards-based browsers, and various client applications.

So if this is Web 2.0, what was its earlier avatar – Web 1.0?
The earlier avatar, that is Web 1.0, would be clearly demarcated content which was fairly static. You could not interact with it, add your comments or leave your mark. You used the software or the content as is and could not collaborate with other users of the same content.

By way of contrast. Back when it was happening, it was just ‘the web’ or the ‘dotcom era’.

Ashok Hingorani, CEO, Computact, (and an avid developer) takes it in his stride:
“Every product goes through the notorious Version 1 – the Net, Windows, etc. And they are always incomplete, buggy, with gaps. Above all, they designed with today’s technology in mind, and evolved rather than reengineered every few years. The Net is more than 15 years old. Its architecture does not take care of many things learned from hindsight, nor does it hande security/ privacy at all. You have to buy special software to do that.”

A website could be said to be built using Web 2.0 technologies if it featured a number of the following techniques:
- CSS, semantically valid XHTML markup, and Microformats
- Unobtrusive Rich Application techniques (such as Ajax)
- XUL (XML User interface Language)
- SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- Syndication of data in RSS/Atom
- Aggregation of RSS/Atom data
- Clean and meaningful URLs
- Support posting to a weblog
- REST or XML Webservice APIs
- Some social networking aspects
- Javascript-based WinLIKE
- Java Web Start
- Flex/Laszlo/Flash

Let's summarize what we believe to be the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:
- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
- Trusting users as co-developers
- Harnessing collective intelligence
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
- Software above the level of a single device
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Web 2.0 is designed to be:
- Some Rights Reserved
- Cooperate, Don't Control
- Software delivered as a service thru the Web

Web 2.0 is after all not a product or object, not something we climb into or touch, but a concept that describes certain aspirations or internet tendencies.

Services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr, del.icio.us, and the like may be expected to bear a "Beta" logo for years at a time.

Web 2.0 is white hot at the moment, and not just because of the hype, but because of the insane amount of stuff that's being built for it right now.

-----------------------------------
If u stuck with any term on this post, search for it using Google
More in-depth posts far beyond Web 2.0 are being prepared right now...

Useful Links:
- Oreilly - What's Web 2.0?
- Wikipedia.org Web_2.0 Definition
- Web 2.0 Workgroup
- Web 2.0 Conference

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Happy Eid el-Adha for everyone

Today is Eid el-Adha el-Mobarak (Holiest Adha Feast)..

i wish all happiness & forgiveness to all Muslims in the entire Muslim community..

Happy Eid to everyone..

i went to the mosque for Eid prayers, then i spent a few good hours with my friends..

today i took the chance of celebrations and set aside (fixed) some of my problems with people as it's Eid and all of us should set aside their problems..

i wish happy Eid to all Muslims worldwide..

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Important Events

Finally and after alot of mess and surfing around, i've got the real times for the following events:

** Cairo International Book Festival:
Where: Cairo International Fairs Area - Nasr City - Cairo - Egypt
When: 19-29 January 2006

** Acitex:
Where: Cairo International Conference Center - Nasr City - Cairo - Egypt
When: 25-28 January 2006

** Cairo ICT:
Where: Cairo International Conference Center - Nasr City - Cairo - Egypt
When: 5-8 February 2006

** MDC 2006:
Where: Air Forces House - Salah Salem Rd. - Nasr City - Cairo - Egypt
When: Not yet set, But around 5 or 8 February 2006

I hope that MDC is determined soon because it's a BIG event u should NEVER miss!

Meet u there folks...

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