Microsoft can admit when it’s wrong. Well, not so much wrong as behind the curve, and the admission was made at a conference, instead of in any sort of black-and-white press release. Still, Ray Ozzie, the company’s chief software architect, turned a few heads when he admitted that Google’s success in advertising had caught Microsoft by surprise.
“Google’s success very clearly caused an inflection point within our industry and within Microsoft in terms of understanding advertising as an economic engine,” Ozzie said at a Goldman Sachs conference (as reported by the Associated Press). “It was a wake-up call within Microsoft.”
Of course, Google also showed the Redmond-based company a thing or two about search engines. For that matter, Yahoo has a larger share of the search market, as well. Ozzie knows this, and Microsoft is working on it – further personalization and integration are on the company’s “to do” list.
On the more general topic of software-based services, the chief software architect uttered a few additional words. “We’ve been building that services platform,” Ozzie said, according to Ina Fried. “The economies of scale that we gain internally are going to be available to third-party developers and enterprises.”
As you’ve probably already surmised, there weren’t any major “leaks” or indications of precisely what Microsoft is up to. Still, it’s always nice to get updates, and the “wake-up” comment came as a real surprise. Companies aren’t usually quick to admit mistakes, and although that’s not exactly what Ozzie was doing, it’s a start.
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