Speaking about consumer search last week, Steve Ballmer said he now regrets that Microsoft quote “didn’t start earlier” unquote. But it seems to me that Microsoft has been all in for a long time and they just haven’t been very successful at consumer search. It wasn’t so much they gave in, as consumers simply preferred Google. It’s unclear if Bing can change that in spite of Ballmer and Microsoft’s best efforts to convince us otherwise.
Did They Give Up or Get Rolled Over?
According to searchenginehistory.com Google launched in 1998 and Microsoft launched its first search offering MSN Search the same year. While Google relied on its own algorithms to generate results, Microsoft used other companies’ search engine technology until 2004 when they began using their own. From this perspective, I suppose Ballmer is accurate, but in the 5 years since Microsoft began using its own technology to generate results, it hasn’t gotten very far.