BusinessWeek - Tech & You September 10, 2008, 4:27PM EST

Chrome focuses on running programs on the Web, not just showing pages

by Stephen H. Wildstrom

In an uncharacteristic burst of modesty, Google (GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin says we should think of the company’s new Chrome Web browser simply as a worthy challenger to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Apple’s (AAPL) Safari. “What we want is a diverse and vibrant ecosystem,” Brin said at the Sept. 2 Chrome launch. “We want several browsers that are viable and substantial choices.”

Don’t believe it for a second. Although the first version of Chrome has a half-finished feel and runs only on Windows, a close look at its features and underlying design reveals a far more dramatic goal. Chrome aims to take on not just Internet Explorer’s 75% share of the browser market but Windows’ dominance of the desktop itself.

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InformationWeek - July 25, 2008 07:30 PM

BrowseRank, Microsoft claims, can deliver better search results by measuring user behavior, including where users go and the amount of time they remain at those pages.

By Thomas Claburn

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) researchers have published a paper describing a new method for determining which Web pages are the most relevant for a given keyword search query.Google relies in part on its PageRank algorithm to determine what’s relevant. Microsoft’s answer to PageRank is BrowseRank.

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International Herald Tribune - By Brad Stone Published: July 18, 2008

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, which posted a 29 percent increase in quarterly profit but issued a forecast below Wall Street expectations for the current quarter. (Armando Arorizo/Bloomberg News)

SAN FRANCISCO: Like two straight-A students who uncharacteristically fail an exam, the technology titans Google and Microsoft issued quarterly results that disappointed investors.

Microsoft, which is engaged in a bruising takeover battle with Yahoo, topped $60 billion in revenue for its complete fiscal year for the first time. But it missed Wall Street’s profit expectations amid rising expenses and an uncertain advertising climate.

The mixed results announced Thursday drove the company’s stock down more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.

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International Herald Tribune - Published: July 16, 2008

By Austin Bogues

WASHINGTON: At a U.S. congressional hearing, lawyers for Google and Yahoo have defended the companies’ recent decision to partner on advertising, saying the arrangement does not violate antitrust laws and will help to keep Yahoo competitive.

Their arguments, made on Tuesday, were countered by Microsoft officials who argued that the partnership would allow Google and Yahoo to dominate more than 90 percent of the search advertising market and could significantly raise prices.

“I never felt so sorry for poor little old Microsoft,” said Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to laughter.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Peter Kafka | July 11, 2008 5:29 PM

Mark your calendars for a day full of sound and fury, signifying nothing: Reps from Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) travel to Washington to make their respective cases: As everyone has noted, the irony is that this time, the Microsoft guys aren’t the ones under antitrust scrutiny.

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BUSINESSWEEK - The Associated Press July 9, 2008, 3:51PM ET

By JOELLE TESSLER

WASHINGTON

Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. told lawmakers Wednesday that Congress should pass basic privacy legislation to protect information about consumers, such as the data being gathered about people’s Web surfing habits in order to pinpoint Internet advertising.

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online advertising, representatives of the two technology rivals said meaningful privacy rules should be based on three core principles: Consumers should be clearly notified what information is being collected about them; people should control how that information is used; and such data should be secured to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands.

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International Herald TribuneF - Published: July 7, 2008

By Steve Lohr

NEW YORK: Bill Gates, who walked away from full-time work at Microsoft last month, was perhaps the foremost applied economist of the second half of the 20th century.

Gates and Microsoft fundamentally shaped how people think about the behavior of modern markets in which technology plays a central role.

Under Gates, who co-founded the company, Microsoft also challenged the conventional wisdom about competition, business strategy and even antitrust law.

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