The Big Fight.

There are several sites that talk about the BIG FIGHT Microsoft vs Google. Here is a compilation from the various different sites and a few of my own views. I am going to talk about the search engines today, I'll take up the companies some other time. Both the Google and Msn engines have their good and bad points, but the major plus for Google is that they already have a huge user base searching regularly on their engine and the majority of those searchers are happy with the results.

Google's Positives

* Powers a huge amount of searches
* Average Joe who is searching for something on the web is happy with results
* Incredibly fast searches
* Good organic to paid result ratio is great (Organic results are at most times relevant).
* Clean layout
* 'Do No Evil' motto which is strictly followed.
* Their own PPC (pay per click advertising) program
* Additional services pioneering free service for all on the web via Gmail, Google News, Google maps, Google sketch up etc.
* Breaking new grounds in technology and ideas to search and the Internet as a whole


Msn's Positives

* So much money to spend advertising it's scary and they will spend it
* Got users by the OS, can implement the search engine to the desktop via Longhorn
* Faster indexing compared to Google
* Already has a large'ish user base from Msn.com but not many search
* Quite a sleek design on search page (search.msn.com)
* Promises to bring a new era in search with new technology coming soon

Google's Negatives

* Time taken for Google to rank a new site increased exponentially (sandbox)
* Affiliate sites taking over the rankings for even highly competitive terms
* Directories flooding the results are getting a HUGE problem
* The word beta, I estimate 70% of Google has beta plastered over it (some even had it for years)

Msn's Negatives

* They have one of the worst reputations on the net
* Manipulating the rankings to your gain can be easily achieved by doing a little research
* Search.msn.com is not as catchy as Google.com
* Bad organic to paid result ratio
* PPC results above organic results
* Nothing really new compared to other engines

As you can probably see I currently prefer Google to the Msn search engine. I see a huge battle on our hands but I got one bit of advice for MSN.... Don't advertise your engine until it's 100% ready, if visitors don't like your results the first time they go there most of them wont come again even if you have improved your algorithm.

Competition is always good it keeps the developers on their toes to improve what they already have. In this case however, the competition is not about building just the best search engine but an industry, which both the the mighty 30year old Microsoft and a young 8year old Google are thriving to achieve. Both of them are huge with regards to their Brand image. Some other time I will try to write about experience vs innovation and how they serve these two companies. Keep a look out for that post.