For its entire 30-year history, Microsoft has delivered software to users in some physical form, be it a floppy disc, CD-ROM, or DVD. But many customers today are expecting software to be online as well. No company excels at this quite like Google, which provides a host of Web-based applications and services that increasingly compete with Microsoft products and services. Indeed, Google is a company that you should examine in relation to your own needs. Here’s what you need to know about Google.
How Google Competes
In addition to its dominant search engine, Google has branched out into a startling array of Web-based products, services, servers, and client applications such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Blogger, Picasa, and YouTube. What’s particularly amazing is that while Google is somewhat dismissive of Microsoft—Google CEO Eric Schmidt once remarked that the software goliath was “not a significant competitor” online—Microsoft recently categorized Google and other “cloud computing” companies as primary competitors. . . .
