Whilst spruiking the release of Windows Live in Tokyo Thursday, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told reporters that Google wasn’t ahead of Microsoft in any way online except with search.
“Google is not ahead of us” said Ballmer, “In the area of search specifically, Google would lead.”
Whilst the Windows Live platform is a positive step forward in Microsoft’s long pubescent attempts to become a leader in online services, it doesn’t come close to Google.
Where for example is the Microsoft equivalent of Google Docs? Oh right, there isn’t one, although you can upload documents to a Windows Live server if you buy Microsoft Office.
Advertising: well there’s Microsoft AdCenter, that allows you to buy advertising on Microsoft sites and not many other places, vs Google Adsense and Adwords, the market leaders by a country mile.
Social networking: well Microsoft does serve ads on Facebook, but pretty soon it will only be the secondary ones. Google has the biggest social network in Brazil and is leading the industry with OpenSocial.
Live Spaces: nice tie in with the MSN chat platform, but still a poor cousin to Blogger as a blogging platform.
Video: did someone say YouTube?
The list could go on and on and on and on…. but I’ll stop there. Certainly Google hasn’t dominated every market it has taken on, but to say that Google runs second to Microsoft online in everything but search says a lot more about Steve Ballmer than it being a true reflection on today’s online marketplace. Perhaps there’s a reason Ballmer photographs so badly :-)
(in part via IHT)