Microsoft Zing - Is it the next big thing?

Microsoft, home of the Windows and the Zune, has just announced that they're going to launch Bing, a rebranding and reformatting of their search engine. So far, they've earmarked $100 million just for the marketing.

Bing, of course, stands for Something to challenge Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It's called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don't try to be the 'next'. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

With $100 million, you could build (or even buy) something remarkable. Something that spread online without benefit of a lot of yelling and shouting. Something that changes the game in a fundamental way. The internet works best when you build a network, not when you buy a brand. In fact, I can't think of one successful online brand that was built with cash.

Fictitious Facts about Rajnikanth

This was forwarded to me by an American friend who read my post on Sivaji and Rajnikanth. Thought I will share it with you. It is hilarious. Enjoy.

Top Rajnikant Facts known to man:

• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Rajnikant has allowed to live
• Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Rajnikant
• Rajnikant counted to infinity – twice
• When Rajnikant does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down
• Rajnikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head
• Rajnikant’s hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush in Poker
• Rajnikant doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is
• Rajnikant gave Mona Lisa that smile
• Rajnikant can slam a revolving door
• Rajnikant does not get frostbite. Rajnikant bites frost
• Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a Padayappa on Satellite TV
• There are no races, only countries of people Rajnikant has beaten to different shades of black and blue
• Rajnikant’s house has no doors, only walls that he walks through
• Rajnikant doesn’t actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear
• Rajnikant can divide by zero
• Newton’s Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Rajnikant turnaround kick
• For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Rajnikant, each testicle is larger than the other one
• When taking the GRE, write “Rajnikant” for every answer. You will score over 1600
• Rajnikant invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink
• In the beginning there was nothing…then Rajnikant kicked that nothing in the face and said “Get a job”. That is the story of the universe
• Rajnikant has 12 moons. One of those moons is the Earth
• Rajnikant grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage
• Archeologists unearthed an old English dictionary dating back to the year 1236. It defined “victim” as “one who has encountered Rajnikant”
• Rajnikant ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one
• If you Google search “Rajnikant getting his ass kicked” you will generate zero results. It just doesn’t happen.
• Rajnikant can drink an entire gallon of milk in thirty-seven seconds
• Rajnikant doesn’t bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint
• It takes Rajnikant 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes – no, he doesn’t have a TIVO
• The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikant kicked one of the corners off
• There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Rajnikant lives in Chennai
• Rajnikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink
• Thousands of years ago Rajnikant came across a bear. It was so terrified that it fled north into the arctic. It was also so terrified that all of its decedents now have white hair.

Thank You

I want to thank every person who has visited my blog in the last 3 months. The number of visits has crossed 1,000 as of 10/3/2007 and the site has logged its 300th unique visitor (No, it is not me clicking away to make up the numbers; I have excluded my IP addresses from all counters). While visitors from the US and India contribute 50% of the visits, followed by Australia, Canada and UK (25%), it has been very encouraging to see visitors from countries like Poland, Russia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Romania logging a significant number of visits. The site has also achieved significantly high organic rankings (as high as #3) on high traffic keywords on Google. The highest # unique visitors on a single day so far has been 35, recorded on 9/27; apparently Google likes people blogging about it.

Happy Reading!

Sincerely,
Naga

Is Google DoubleClicking its way to dominance?

Rarely do Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo! (YHOO) join hands on an issue, but when the firm on the other side is Google (GOOG), they are more than happy to do so. Ever since Google announced the $3.1 bn takeover of DoubleClick, the two software giants have been crying foul over the control it will give Google over Internet advertising.

While Microsoft - who also wanted to buy DoubleClick - is playing the role of the peeved loser pointing to anti-trust violations (no stranger to being the target of anti-trust accusations themselves), Yahoo seems more concerned about the future of advertisers on the web. To paraphrase, both companies are running scared of Google's latest attempt at dominating the webosphere, where it already holds sway with search (paid or organic). The fact of the matter is that Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would combine the two largest online advertising distributors from two dominant advertising channels (search and display ads) and thus substantially reduce competition in the advertising market on the Web - a shrewd move indeed by Messrs Schmidt, Brin and Paige.

Having spent the best part of the last two years on internet marketing analytics and having worked with both Google and DoubleClick, I can clearly see this being a seminal move. Here are the reasons - Google is the 800-pound gorilla in online advertising (It owns 56% of the core U.S. search market; Microsoft - 12%; Yahoo 23% - as of July 2007) and this merger doesn't change that. But at the same time, this deal clearly has the potential to ignite Google's efforts in the display ad market and down the road gives them the opportunity to create a platform that marries search and display ads in a way that it will be hard to fathom others imitating. Even the sky high price may be less a function of DoubleClick's current worth and more about what it can strategically provide for Google—and what it could have done for Microsoft or Yahoo!

Google seems to be following the most successful adage in business - "If you can't make it, buy it". Google's display efforts to date, like its attempts to expand outside of search in general, have been marginally successful at best. So in a lot of ways, it had to do acquire a company like DoubleClick. But what was surprising to me was the aggressive approach taken by Google towards dominating the industry - while it could have easily and conservatively sat on its riches from search, it decided to expand its horizons and give it rivals something more to think about.

As the legal battles and corporate counter-strategies unfold over the next few months (Microsoft has since announced the $6 bn purchase of DoubleClick's rival aQuantive), I can but only sit and admire a company that simply doesn't want to lose anything - not even a market share it doesn't have!