I was just reading WSJ under the technology section. A great feature about them is that they do regular online surveys on topical questions, usually dealing with the news, business, technology, politics, etc...

Well they are polling a survey on technology and business that I thought was very interesting, considering how Google has been in the news lately: Which tech company will have the biggest market capitalization in 5 years? (And no you don't get a FREE Mini iPod™ (4GB) by taking this survey. ) Learn more

I don't know if the result is a reflection of Microsoft's recent media blitz: the launching of XBox 360, a map-searching product called MSN Virtual Earth, which gives a 3D 45° angle view of the searched area, and an Adsense™-like technology for their MSN Portal.

Microsoft is still a big player with Windows and their Office product. Unless they figure out how to not just rely on their codes (which are intellectual property) but more on how to service to regular folks like myself, they won't be an innovative company. With projects like ONLamp and Apache, open source is becoming more and more the way to go.

Intellectual property company who value their codes over how to service and innovate will need to refocus on their business model. Look at Microsoft's recent upgrade of their Hotmail service to 250MB, while Google is at 2.3GB...and growing.

It'd be interesting to see if Hotmail will be able to compete with Google. Isn't it funny that while Microsoft is playing catchup, Google is further moving on to new changes in the web landscape. Google has made amazing products like Desktop Search, Google Maps, Google Accelerators, Google Suggest, Google Video, etc. You can track what they're doing at labs.google.com

There's no telling how far Google will go. It's just a question of how far will Microsoft follow to compete with them. Anyone reading this work on any Google products? I'd like to grab a cup of coffee with you and just have a talk.

Google understands people, Microsoft does not.

Remember when Hollywood released Armageddon and Deep Impact in the same summer? Take a look at these pics of MSN Virtual Earth and Google Earth. You can read the Wall Street Journal article by clicking here. (Available online for 7 days when the article appeared.)

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