I think in the beginning MS wanted to win, but I think eventually they got to the point where they got in to markets just to establish some market presence, letting competitors know that they were interested in playing in that space, and preventing others from making too much headway in that space.
I don't think Google's forays in to myriad markets is necessarily motivated by any real interest in being in specific markets - I think often its a progression from their 'labs' idea. Arguably this is less aggressive than the MS of old, but... I think the effects are worse in some ways, as you see with some projects. Code Search was one. Google Voice may be another.
Loads of people end up flocking to these services to the detriment of smaller, focused competitors. In many cases, it's probably because the services are free, but also Google's "aw shucks, we're just being good guys" wins a lot of people over. Google has an insane amount of power/control over peoples' personal data and activities compared to the MS of 15 years ago, but people trust them similarly to how people viewed MS in the early 90s - Windows 3.1 was great, and Win95 took the world by storm.
The game is Google's to lose right now, and I wonder when that happens if it'll be gradual, or instant.
Good point on the Wave plug pulling. I suspect though that if they had even a fraction of the paying customers MS did for any even minor MS product, that they'd end up with a long sunset period as well. Google generally doesn't charge for many services, so I think people cut them some slack on the fast shuttering of those same services. However, it's generally the case that most people have quit using it (and, again, they're not paying anything for it anyway - here's your money back). Google killing 'Buzz' is another example of that.
What's missed in notions of 'attention economy' ('ads') is that Google monetizes our attention. When they close a service, we can't get that attention back, but they do get to keep the money they earned from our attention. In a more traditional MS-style product cancellation, there might be a chance of a refund, or we'd at least get to keep the product.
"I suspect though that if they had even a fraction of the paying customers MS did for any even minor MS product, that they'd end up with a long sunset period as well."
I'm sorry, I must have been unclear: it has been my experience that MS /does/ pull the plug swiftly and unambiguously when they do intend to give up; they "double down or shut it down", as I tried to describe in my post. It is Google that I find tends to just give up on something, but leave it there, as if it still works, as if it will always work, and goes on to do other things while it rots.
I see your point rereading (thanks for clarification) but it's always felt to me like MS has left things hanging around as well, but I can't think of one (beyond IE6!) right now :)
I don't think Google's forays in to myriad markets is necessarily motivated by any real interest in being in specific markets - I think often its a progression from their 'labs' idea. Arguably this is less aggressive than the MS of old, but... I think the effects are worse in some ways, as you see with some projects. Code Search was one. Google Voice may be another.
Loads of people end up flocking to these services to the detriment of smaller, focused competitors. In many cases, it's probably because the services are free, but also Google's "aw shucks, we're just being good guys" wins a lot of people over. Google has an insane amount of power/control over peoples' personal data and activities compared to the MS of 15 years ago, but people trust them similarly to how people viewed MS in the early 90s - Windows 3.1 was great, and Win95 took the world by storm.
The game is Google's to lose right now, and I wonder when that happens if it'll be gradual, or instant.
Good point on the Wave plug pulling. I suspect though that if they had even a fraction of the paying customers MS did for any even minor MS product, that they'd end up with a long sunset period as well. Google generally doesn't charge for many services, so I think people cut them some slack on the fast shuttering of those same services. However, it's generally the case that most people have quit using it (and, again, they're not paying anything for it anyway - here's your money back). Google killing 'Buzz' is another example of that.
What's missed in notions of 'attention economy' ('ads') is that Google monetizes our attention. When they close a service, we can't get that attention back, but they do get to keep the money they earned from our attention. In a more traditional MS-style product cancellation, there might be a chance of a refund, or we'd at least get to keep the product.